‘I’m carrying 50 pounds of wet hot cheese’: Brewster Street Icehouse worker in Texas takes leftover cheese to the dumpster. Then she tosses it in
A Brewster Street Icehouse worker in Texas showed her audience one bad and tricky part of her job. She has to throw away all of the leftover cheese for the night straight into the trash can.
Piper set up her phone to record her, then tossed the bag over her head on “hour 12” of her incredibly late shift. Only, it didn’t end up in the dumpster. Instead, the molten dairy product burst from the bag directly onto her phone, covering the camera in a yellow glow.
Piper posted the video (presumably after cleaning off her phone) in a video with over 17 million views.
Audiences can pause to see the exact moment that the two plastic trash bags Piper was holding burst, bringing forth an avalanche of liquid that made for a genuinely bad work day.
Why did the bag burst?
According to Piper, the bag was sealed with two different plastic trash bags. Despite this, the hot cheese persisted.
Based on online accounts and reports, even average “melty” cheese temperatures can burn through plastics and other superficial bags. The melting point of cheddar is 150°F (66°C). Other cheeses have different melting points and points at which they “re-congeal” if not kept at a constant temperature.
It’s likely that the cheese kept at Brewster Street House is kept on a constant low heat to keep it from congealing, which keeps the cheese ready for guests. But that doesn’t bode well for a weak trash bag, even double-bagged.
The bag also most likely weighed quite a bit. An entire tub of melted cheese will have significant weight, as it has no air or space between the layers. In essence, melted cheese is denser and has more volume than shredded cheese. You can pack more shredded cheese into a small space, making a tub of melted cheese have more cheese than a regular tub of cheddar or mozzarella.
@fuckingyogurt there’s cheese in every crack & crevice of my phone #restaurant#fail ♬ original sound – piper ˚ ༘ ??⋆｡˚
What about food waste?
Restaurant employees are instructed to throw away leftover food at the end of a shift. That’s because they don’t want to risk keeping food that may expire or not be as high-quality for upcoming shifts.
According to Restaurant HQ, the U.S. is the largest active contributor to food waste, with the restaurant industry contributing 160 billion to food waste.
There are conscientious efforts for restaurants to reduce their food waste, but these efforts don’t always translate to products like melted cheese. After all, it’s incredibly difficult to “donate” a tub of nacho cheese to a charitable organization. Rather, restaurants focus on products like baked goods that have longer expiration dates, travel better, and are still edible when slightly stale.
Apps like Too Good To Go are helpful for restaurants to save certain products from going straight into the dumpster, but it’s likely that Piper will continue throwing away hot cheese in the future.
The Mary Sue has reached out to Piper and Brewster Street Icehouse for comment.
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