Not What They Meant By “Ground” Beef

I work at a sandwich shop. We prep some things so if we run out during the day we can easily replace it during the day. My coworker is prepping meatballs, which are stored in a large container with lots of sauce. He goes to the back to store them in the fridge when I hear a loud thud. He walks back out with a look of anger and sadness on his face and from the waist down he’s covered in sauce.

Me: “Oh, no.”

Coworker #1: “Yeah, it’s a mess. Dropped the whole thing on the floor.”

We both go to grab stuff to clean while another coworker looks at us. 

Coworker #2: “Did the meatballs get on the floor?”

Coworker #1: “Yeah?”

Coworker #2: “Then pick them up and put more sauce in the bin; they’re fine.”

Me: “What? We are not serving people meatballs that have been on the floor of a walk-in fridge!”

Coworker #2: “It’s not like there are cameras in there!”

I just walked away in horror and helped clean up the meatballs — which we put in the trash. I’m just scared about what she served to customers when I wasn’t there.