5 Of the grossest food moments that took place in the year 2018

Hey everyone. 2018 has been a really long year, hasn't it? For now, let's not talk about politics or films - that's been discussed ad nauseam - and focus on the world of food. We had plenty to celebrate when it comes to the morsels popped in our mouths, but between celebrity diets, new food promotions and hilarious food fails, we had quite a few gross-out moments in the world of food.

Here are some of the year's best. Or should that be worst?

Back in March, an employee at a Pita Pit in Missoula, Montana lost their job after being caught on camera spitting into one of the sandwiches about to be served to a customer. It's still not clear what started the altercation, but Shae Lynn, a customer who uploaded the video in a since-deleted Facebook post, said: "this racist [employee] spit in our food because apparently she was having a bad day and didn’t wanna[sic] be at work!" Reportedly taking place in the restaurant early on a Saturday morning in March, the Pita Pit owners were forced to write a lengthy Facebook post apologising for the incident.

I like a bit of grocery store soup as much as the next guy. But when the next guy is drinking directly from the ladle, then it's probably best if I stick to eating soup at restaurants or at home. This man in Chicago went viral earlier this year for ladling soup directly into his mouth at a grocery store, and the video is something to behold. My favourite part is how he's got some bread in a plastic bag, and you just know that if nobody was filming him, he'd soon start dipping.

Up in Wisconsin, a man was arrested back in the summer for inserting foreign objects into sausages at a Johnsonville Sausage plant. 25-year-old Jonathan Lane inserted a piece of cigarette paper into the sausage meat on March 25, before being caught inserting a wire connector into the meat on March 28. Surveillance footage gave the game away, and he was arrested in June, and can expect a hefty fine as well as jail time for his actions.

A Teddy's Bigger Burgers branch out in Mapunapuna, Hawaii, was forced to close after a video made the rounds of a teenage employee cooking a rat on a grill. The video was recorded on Snapchat, but quickly made the rounds on Twitter, before the Teddy's management terminated the employees featured in the video. Pulling out all the stops, they closed the restaurant for a full clean, before asking the Department of Health to come down and confirm that everything was up to scratch.

If I know one thing, it's that rats and restaurants don't go well together outside of a Pixar film (and really, not even then). That particular theory was given yet more evidence after a video went viral of a man murdering rats with a hatchet. Dixie Pig in Oakland Park, Florida (yep, of course Florida is on this list) had to close for a while after their cook decided to fix the restaurant's rat problem himself, killing several rats with a hatchet on camera, as other employees can be heard saying "what the f*** is wrong with you?"

Well folks, what a weird trip down Memory Lane that was. Who knows what weird food-related things we'll have to enjoy in 2019? I for one, can't wait.