A customer's cellphone video capturing a Panda Express employee standing on top of a hot fryer while food cooked inside it has gone viral, showing the worker balanced above the equipment at the chain's location on Miller Park Way, south of National Avenue, in West Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The footage also shows a second employee reaching between the cleaning worker's legs to drop a bowl of food into a fry basket below.
The video was captured in early July, according to FOX6 News Milwaukee, which reported that Paul Finger recorded the footage and, per Storyful, noticed the man jump onto the fryer after a woman had already put food into it. The employee appeared to be cleaning the exhaust hood area directly above the fry station, according to the station's report. FOX6 said it received permission to post both the TikTok video and a statement from a Panda Express spokesperson.
A Panda Restaurant Group spokesperson confirmed the incident occurred in early July and said the company addressed it immediately upon becoming aware of it, per the same account. The spokesperson described the behavior as inconsistent with food safety and workplace standards, and the company said it conducted retraining and reinforced proper safety procedures with the restaurant team and throughout the region.
What Federal Safety Rules Say About Fryer Cleaning
The incident runs directly counter to guidance from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which identifies deep fat fryers as a leading cause of burn injuries among restaurant workers and specifically warns against climbing on or reaching over hot equipment while cleaning exhaust hoods positioned above fryers, according to OSHA. Federal child labor guidance separately bars restaurant workers under 16 from operating deep fat fryers and requires employers to provide protective gear and safety training for kitchen cleaning duties, per OSHAcademy.
Wisconsin's own food code adds another layer of concern. Retail food establishments in the state are required to protect food-contact surfaces from contamination at all times and to keep toxic cleaning chemicals away from exposed food, under rules enforced by the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection. A worker standing directly above open fry baskets with food actively cooking inside them raises exactly the kind of cross-contamination risk those rules are meant to prevent.
Health Records Show Prior Violations at the Same Store
FOX6 reviewed South Suburban Health Department records and reported that the July incident itself was not listed in any health department report. The station did find that the department conducted a routine inspection at the West Milwaukee location on February 18, and that records for the store contained violations related to food-contact and soiled surfaces dating back to February 2024. Local health inspections in suburban Milwaukee County typically check for food-contact cleanability, proper handwashing facilities and equipment maintenance, according to Safe Biter, though it remains unclear whether inspectors will conduct a follow-up visit to the Miller Park Way store now that the video has spread publicly.
A Chain With a History of Compliance Trouble
Panda Express describes itself as the largest Asian restaurant chain in the United States per its company website, and the broader Panda Restaurant Group operates more than 2,600 locations worldwide, generating roughly $6.2 billion in U.S. systemwide sales in 2024 while keeping company ownership of more than 90% of its restaurants, according to Nation's Restaurant News. The chain remains fully family-owned through the Cherng Family Trust rather than publicly traded, with the Cherng family continuing to serve as co-CEOs since founding the business at the Glendale Galleria in 1983, per Tasting Table.
This is not the parent company's first brush with regulatory trouble. Panda Restaurant Group agreed in December to pay over $1M for hazardous materials violations tied to chemical and carbon dioxide storage compliance issues across more than 500 California locations.
An Echo of Past Viral Fast-Food Scandals
The West Milwaukee video recalls other viral fast-food incidents that forced swift corporate reckonings. In July 2012, a Burger King employee in Mayfield Heights, Ohio, was photographed standing in lettuce bins, a stunt that led to three firings and a county health department investigation, according to Wikipedia. In 2009, a video showing two Domino's Pizza employees misbehaving in a kitchen forced the company's U.S. president to issue a public video apology and overhaul internal employee monitoring standards, per research published in PLOS ONE.
Crisis management research in food service suggests viral clips exposing kitchen sanitation breaches frequently trigger immediate health department re-inspections and emergency corporate retraining mandates, according to Food Safety News. Panda Restaurant Group has said it prioritized the safety of its guests and associates and took corrective action after the video surfaced, but whether local health officials will independently revisit the Miller Park Way location remains an open question. FOX6's report noted that FOX Business also contributed to the story.
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