Texas Roadhouse denies viral racist food tampering allegations

Texas Roadhouse has declared that viral allegations of racist food tampering were a hoax. The claims originated from a Facebook post by a user named Nancy Smith, which alleged that a group of 400,000 employees at Texas Roadhouse and Logan’s Roadhouse were planning to tamper with the meals of Black diners by licking their fingers or touching food.

An internal investigation by Texas Roadhouse, supported by a third-party firm, found no evidence of such a group or any instances of food tampering. The company noted suspicious activity regarding the account used to spread the rumor, which was created, renamed, and subsequently deleted. Fact-checking organization Snopes also concluded the allegations were unfounded. Notably, Texas Roadhouse employs approximately 101,000 people in total, contradicting the claim of a 400,000-member conspiracy group.

Despite the debunking, the rumor sparked significant social media backlash. Civil rights activist Melody Angel used the incident to call for a boycott of White-owned restaurants, encouraging Black consumers to support Black-owned businesses instead. Texas Roadhouse reported that it has not seen any impact on its business operations due to the backlash.