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"It appears a Taco Bell employee in California loves the food he serves a little too much. A shell-shocking photograph of a male employee licking a giant stack of tacos went viral after a Facebook user from Ridgecrest, CA, posted it on the company&amp;#039;s Facebook page. Outraged fans of the Tex-Mex chain are already vowing to never step foot into the restaurant again. Taco Bell attempted to clear their name on Wednesday with an official statement on their website. &amp;quot;Our food handling procedures are strict, and we have zero tolerance for any violations,&amp;quot; they said.The employee in question is in the process of being fired. Even though it&amp;#039;s unclear from the photo whether the shells were being thrown out or used for customers, the food chain insists they were about to be disposed of when two employees decided to take a picture with them for a company contest. The employees never submitted the image, which clearly violated the contest rules, but they uploaded it to the web. Responding directly about the controversy, a company spokesman stated, &amp;quot;\u2026although we believe it&amp;#039;s a prank and the food was not served to customers, we are conducting a full scale investigation and will be taking swift action against those involved.&amp;quot; Some people believe it&amp;#039;s too late for damage control. One Facebook user told the restaurant that he won&amp;#039;t be eating at a Taco Bell until the &amp;quot;food is safe from idiots&amp;quot; like the shell-licker. Another woman posted she will never eat at the restaurant again. However, one Facebook user remains loco for the tacos posting, &amp;quot;I don&amp;#039;t care if your employees lick the taco shells. Your food is delicious.&amp;quot; What do you think about the Taco Bell employee&amp;#039;s photo? Share your thoughts in the comments below. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.womansday.com/life/news/a47696/taco-bell-employee-licks-shells/>