What to know
- A Hamilton man says staff at a Tim Hortons location gave him coffee in a stained, previously used cup that had been rinsed and reused after a drink mix-up.
- Frank Beni confronted employees, who he says initially denied the claim before admitting the cup had been rinsed after a hot chocolate order was returned.
- Beni contacted customer service and public health officials, who investigated and told staff to stop reusing cups after some admitted it had happened before.
- The man says the response wasn’t enough and hopes speaking out will push the company to improve food safety standards.
A Hamilton man is seeking accountability from staff at a Tim Horton’s location, after he said they gave him a stained and used cup for his coffee.
Frank Beni told Now Toronto he was visiting the coffee shop’s location on Concession St in Hamilton on Sunday, March 1. After placing his order, Beni said he witnessed the employee walking toward the drive thru before retrieving a cup that was allegedly stained around the rim.
When the employee tried to hand his coffee, Beni made sure to check his cup.
“One of the [other] large cups had a brown, dry stain around the rim of the cup, so, I knew when it came to me that I was going to take the lid off to look,” he said. “And I did and confronted them.”
Beni said the employee initially denied the claim, but eventually admitted to reusing another customer’s cup.
“I said, ‘I saw you walk past me and the stain was in the cup before you poured the coffee in there. It was dry,’” Beni explained. “They denied it again, and then finally said, ‘What happened was, we had made hot chocolate for a customer and found out it was the wrong drink, so we rinsed the cup out to reuse it.’”
Beni said that what they did was unacceptable, adding the employees told him no one on staff had their food handling certification. He then finally spoke to the store manager after multiple employees said they were the supervisor, even after saying there wasn’t one on duty.
“I called the customer service line,” he said. “…The district manager even said, ‘No, the staff, we talked to them. We’re so very sorry,’ but when I spoke to the store manager, they’re trying to backpedal and say that that’s not what happened.”
Beni said the store manager told him when customers returned cups to the store, employees aren’t allowed to take them, but Beni said he was bluffing, because when he returned his cup, it was taken by the employee.
Beni added he was told the employee involved received additional training after the incident and was moved away from working in the food and beverage section of the store.
Now Toronto reached out to Tim Horton’s but did not receive a response by publication.
Beni then spoke with Public Health, who allegedly followed up with an investigation and said some employees had admitted to them that they sometimes rinse out and reuse cups.
The health organization told the staff not to do it anymore, who complied. Due to this, Public Health did not have to specify the employee’s admission in their report.
“I’ve worked with food for 20 years now,” Beni said. “If something happens like that, as long as they’re in compliance, to correct the issue, it never, unfortunately, gets actually put onto the report.”
Although, this wasn’t enough for Beni.
“I saw them walk by with a cup this time,” he said. “What’s happened to other people where they don’t happen to see it happening.”
Beni said he hopes that by bringing light on situations like this, he hopes to raise Tim Horton’s to better, cleaner food safety standards.
“I’ve just noticed that the standards have just diminished, real standards, which once were there, and just this alone is a health code infraction… but them sweeping under the rug is kind of alarming, because it just makes you wonder what’s really happening.”
