What Food Safety Experts Think of the Mysterious Numbers on Olive Garden Breadsticks
A viral TikTok video raised concerns. But how worried should you really be?
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“guys why is there letters on my olive garden breadstick,” wondered a bio-less TikToker in a video that has gone viral, racking up more than 4.2 million views since it was posted on November 16.
The video shows fingers loosely clutching what appears to be a partially eaten breadstick in its natural habitat (i.e. an Olive Garden table). On the breadstick, in alarming scale and clarity, letters and numbers can be seen: “O K6.”
“They’re from frozen bags so the label must’ve like gotten on that one,” speculated one commenter.
“It’s from the plastic bag they come in and when they sit in the freezer for a while that can happen,” another who self-identified as an “Olive Garden worker” explained.
“I also used to bake the breadsticks. LOOKS LIKE THE CODING ON THE PLASTIC BAGS THEY COME IN with their package date,” wrote another former Olive Garden server and bartender.
“it’s like when you do the tongue tattoos with fruit rollups the print stuck onto the bread,” a commenter presumably unaffiliated with the restaurant chain weighed in.
The very next day, Olive Garden itself responded to the original poster, also on TikTok. “We are concerned to see this,” the chain’s official account wrote, asking the poster to contact them.
In a follow-up post, the poster shared that they had received a $100 gift card from the restaurant. “Thank you olive gardens,” they wrote and said over the sound of an evil laugh.
We may never know what that laugh means, but we did reach out to registered dietitians and food safety experts Toby Amidor, MS, RD, CDN and Dana Angelo White, MS, RD, ATC to get their take on the mysterious appearance of letters on that breadstick.
While White notes that she has “no insider information on Olive Garden,” she guesses that the chain’s breadsticks are not made from scratch on site. “If they come packaged and then baked at the restaurant, it would be easy for some print from packing materials to accidentally transfer onto the breadsticks,” she says.
Amidor adds, although ink printed on packaging is not intended to be eaten, “most likely ingesting it in very small amounts like this won’t do much harm.” However, she warns, frequent consumption of ink like this may have a negative impact on your health.
“From a restaurant’s perspective, management needs to train employees to place the ‘to be buttered and warmed breadsticks’ on a clean and sanitary surface — not on the bag,” Amidor says. “Customers can return the inked breadsticks and ask for new ones if they are concerned.”
White says you should “always rule on the safe side when it comes to food, especially food you didn’t prepare.”
“When in doubt,” she advises, “don’t eat it!”
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