Brown substance on MSU senior's Subway sandwich wrapper goes viral – Lansing State Journal

EAST LANSING — A Michigan State senior says she was served a Subway sandwich last week contaminated with feces, but the company says what the woman found in her wrapper was, instead, merely chocolate.
A Subway spokesman said Tuesday that the Ingham County Health Department issued an inspection report indicating the brown substance on the sandwich wrapper was chocolate from a cookie.
However, the health department never tested the substance, instead relying on statements by the store’s owner and East Lansing police that video footage showed an employee eating a chocolate chip cookie and not washing their hands before making the woman’s sandwich, according to a health inspection report released by the department.
The sample taken from the wrapper has not yet been tested to determine whether it is in fact chocolate or another unknown substance.
In a viral TikTok posted last week, Michigan State University senior Kelsey Coyne claimed that a sub she purchased at the fast-food chain’s 1100 E. Grand River Ave. store had feces smeared between two pieces of wrapping paper.
Coyne said she had a “kind of weird interaction” with a store employee before leaving with the sandwich. She took her first bite in the parking lot. She said she assumed a foul smell she noticed was due to sewage in the parking lot.
A second bite of the sandwich, at home, convinced her something was off.
“I go to take a bite (at home), and I smell the exact same (expletive), look in the papers in between the two wrappers on the sandwich … is literal (excrement),” Coyne said in the video. “We’re not sure if it’s dog or human (feces) right now.”
In an email Tuesday, a Subway spokesperson who declined to be named said the Ingham County Health Department released an inspection report on Monday that concluded the brown residue was chocolate from a cookie.
“As soon as the restaurant was made aware of the situation, the franchisee worked with local authorities, including the police and health department, to look into the alleged claim,” the statement said. “On Monday, September 12, the local health department released its inspection report, concluding that the remnants seen on the sandwich wrapper were chocolate from a cookie and the case has since been closed.”
ICHD spokesperson Victoria Coykendall said, however, the department did not receive test samples from the East Lansing Police Department, so no report is available. They opened a food safety complaint after being notified of ELPD’s complaint, but health officials closed the complaint later on the police’s recommendation.
According to East Lansing Police Capt. Chad Pride, officers took a report from Coyne and swabbed the substance for analysis before planning to pass it to the county health department.
But health officials instead asked police to send the sample to Michigan State Police for testing, Pride said. MSP refused the sample, Pride said, and ELPD is now looking for a third party to conduct the test.
“No further action from the health department is being taken at this time,” Coykendall said.
According to the health department inspection report, an inspector spoke with the store owner, identified only as “Ken,” who said they viewed video footage from the time period when Coyne was in the store. The owner said they did not see anything suspicious.
The report further notes East Lansing police officers visited the store on Sept. 9 and viewed footage with a store manager. The report states that officers saw Coyne enter the building as an employee was eating a cookie. The employee, the report states, finished the cookie, but failed to wash his hands before making the customer’s sandwich.
Police, the report states, witnessed the employee get some of the cookie on the sandwich wrapper. The customer asked for the sandwich to be toasted, “which then cooked the chocolate onto the wrapping.”
Police and the health inspector both closed the complaint, the report states.
Adulterating food is a prohibited act in Michigan, but it’s not clear what consequences a charge would carry.
In the TikTok posted Saturday, Coyne, 21, said she filed a complaint on Subway’s website and called the corporation multiple times, and she was told to wait for someone to respond online. But she hadn’t received a response yet.
“I don’t know what to do. I haven’t been able to eat really since then. I’ve been so incredibly nauseous just from the thought of food,” she said.
Contact reporter Jared Weber at 517-582-3937 or [email protected].

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