Four People Detained After Footage Of Worker Crushing Cherries To Make Jam And Juice With Boots On

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  • Post category:Crime

Story By: Feza Uzay, Sub-Editor: Marija Stojkoska, Agency:  Newsflash

The owner and three of his employees who work in a fruit juice and jam making factory in Turkey have been arrested after the release of a video that shows one of the employees crushing cherries – with his boots on.

The incident occurred in a plant product collection centre that allegedly sells its product to fruit juice-making factories and for jam in the town of Sultandagi, in the Afyonkarahisar province in the Aegean region of Turkey.

The video showing a man stomping cherries with his shoes on and a smile on his face, while a co-worker brings in more crates filled with more cherries. The video quickly spread on social media, sparking outrage.

A worker at the fruit picking center of a juice brand stepped on cherries with his shoes in Afyonkarahisar, Turkey. (Newsflash)

The Turkish Agriculture and Forestry Directorate teams detained the owner of the company, Ramazan Gökmen, as well as three other people involved in the incident. Along with the arrests the company was fined a financial penalty of 21 thousand Turkish Liras (GBP 1,746).

A worker in the facility who wanted to stay anonymous defended his colleagues claiming that the cherries seen in the video were meant to be destroyed.

He said: “The cherries that have gone off and become wormy due to heavy rain are not left on the ground, they are collected and destroyed because they damage trees and gardens.

A worker at the fruit picking center of a juice brand stepped on cherries with his shoes in Afyonkarahisar, Turkey. (Newsflash)

“We destroy the wormy ones when they arrive. The cherries to be destroyed are those that are seen in the video. It’s not the cherries that will be pulped.”

This is not the first food-related incident in the country as previously a worker from a diary company was arrested for posting a video of himself bathing in milk. Another incident was recorded on TikTok showing two workers in a doner kebab factory who dance and mess around while packing meat without face masks on.