Salad bar company Chop’t said Wednesday that the company is “conducting a thorough investigation” into how a dead rodent ended up in a customer’s wrap.
The company said the Pine Street location where the rodent-filled meal originated was reopened a day after the salad purveyor requested an emergency inspection from the city’s Department of Health. No “rodent activity” was detected in the inspection, the company said.
A Department of Health spokesman confirmed there was no evidence of vermin or “conditions conducive to vermin” and no violations were cited during the inspection.
The incident was first reported on Twitter on Tuesday by grossed-out co-workers at law firm Stroock; one employee tweeted a picture of the wrap with the dark gray-haired rodent’s head and one hand peeking out from a tortilla next to some lettuce. Images of the rat went viral with the hashtag #RatWrap.
Chop’t founders Tony Shure and Colin McCabe issued an “open letter” on Tuesday apologizing for the incident. “Nothing can describe what goes through the minds and hearts of all of us at Chop’t in a moment like this,” they wrote.
They said they had closed the Pine Street location temporarily “in an abundance of caution” and to do a “thorough inspection.”
The location’s last health inspection was in September 2013, according to the Health Department. It had an A letter grade.
