New York man ordered from the Whole Foods hot bar. Then he found a maggot squirming next to his broccoli

A New York man says he found a maggot in a takeout meal he ordered from the hot bar at a Whole Foods Market location in Manhattan. He shared a video of the discovery on TikTok, where it has been viewed more than 103,300 times.

The video was posted by a user going by Andrew (@theandrewzion). It shows a close-up, overhead shot of a partly eaten meal inside a brown cardboard takeout box.

The container holds pieces of chicken, some coated in a green, herby seasoning and others mixed with a reddish sauce. A clear plastic fork rests on top of the food, and the bottom of the box is smeared with sauce and small food particles.

A white object in the container is identified as a maggot

A white, worm-like object appears among the food and sauce in the video. On-screen text identifies the object as a maggot. The object appears to move slightly within the container, and this movement is said to be most noticeable around the 0:08 mark of the video. On-screen text in the video reads, “I found a maggot in my food from Whole Foods Hot Bar 😳 270 Greenwich Street NYC.” This is the address of a Whole Foods Market location in New York City.

The caption of the video adds to the complaint. It states, “@Whole Foods Market your food safety measures are awful!!!!!!” There is no narration from Andrew himself in the video. The complaint is conveyed entirely through the on-screen text and the caption.

The video has drawn a range of comments from viewers, some of whom questioned the video at first before changing their minds after seeing the object move. One commenter wrote, “I thought you was lying until that thing started squirming around.”

Another commenter offered a different take on what the object might actually be, suggesting it was not a maggot at all. That comment read, “If it makes you feel better I’m 85% sure that’s a tiny slug.” A separate comment connected the incident to a broader claim about the state of the food industry in the United States, stating, “why does it seem like our food industry is collapsing under this administration.”

One commenter used a sarcastic remark to react to the object in the food, writing simply, “Extra protein.” Whole Foods has faced other complaints about foreign objects in food, such as when a woman found something crawling in a package of sea bass.

Food safety concerns at New York City locations have led to legal action, as a Texas woman sued McDonald’s over a sausage McMuffin she ordered there. It is not clear from the video or its caption whether Andrew contacted Whole Foods Market directly about the incident, or whether he sought a refund for the order. Whole Foods Market has not issued a public response to the video as of this writing.