15+ Employees who brought bizarre offerings to potluck meals: 'The chips expired in 2014!'

Author image for Remy Millisky
Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Dec 9, 2025 11:00 AM EST

When you decide to dig in at the office potluck, you do so at your own risk!

They say you can't eat at just anyone's house, and when you've visited a few questionable kitchens, you'll understand. Sometimes, even if you're starving, you just cannot eat at at certain person's home, because they don't abide by the health codes that are recommended to avoid falling ill. Some people let their pets crawl all over their kitchen surfaces, and then have no problem cooking on those same (unwashed!) countertops. Other people don't feel the need to refrigerate things, thinking that if they can't see visible mold, the food must be perfectly okay to eat. And some folks will simply never throw out any condiment or ingredient, even if it's expired by several decades. 

It's hard to get out of eating food when you're expected to, though. You may have to conjure up an allergy, or insist that you've already eaten and can't fit another bite into your stomach. You've just got to do whatever it takes to avoid eating a piece of cat-hair-infused pie or unwashed salad that's crawling with bugs. These people below will never eat at the office potluck again after their unsettling culinary discoveries, and it's a good reminder that we should probably just do away with that, and let the office cater food instead. There's no need to put an extra burden on the employees, anyway — just let a local restaurant do what they do best. 

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  • 01
    Man places bowl of pasta onto table full of food while group of men and women sitting at table look on and smile, in background are a canopy and hedges
    via Curated Lifestyle For Unsplash+

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • 02
    ComparisonHonest Has a guy bring in his "specialty corn." It was legit canned corn in a crockpot with spices. Thing is, he tells us "ya, my wife took it to her pot luck on Tuesday, they didn't eat it so I saved it on low in the crockpot and brought it here." It was Friday. Corn was brown.
    via u/ComparisonHonest
  • 03
    Nobody ate it. He kept eating it saying it was so good. The following Monday his new name at work was Corn Cob Rob.
    via u/ComparisonHonest
  • 04
    dirtandstarsinmye... My grandmother-in-law. Everything she brings. The first time was stale cake in a bowl of syrup(?). It was both cake and soup, while also being neither. She has meat in her deep freezer older than some of her grandchildren. She's a depression-era cook, so expiration dates don't apply to medicine, cupboards, or
    via u/dirtandstarsinmyeyes
  • 05
    freezers. Once she tried to give my daughter (2yo at the time), cough medicine that expire 9 years before she was even born.
    via u/dirtandstarsinmyeyes
  • 06
    Un... Someone made brownies with ground meat in them to a church potluck. My vegetarian friend discovered this when she bit into one. She was more confused and horrified about their existence than she was upset about eating meat-- it was the concept of this abomination itself that was disturbing and baffling.
    via u/Unfey
  • 07
    I thought she had to be wrong. "You haven't had ground beef in years, you don't know what it tastes like anymore, it's probably something else." I tried them. It was beef. I was disgusted and really, really, really confused.
    via u/Unfey
  • 08
    Years later, I found out that apparently this was a thing. Someone came up with this- - putting beef in brownies-- as a substitute for walnuts for people with nut allergies. While this explains it a little, in theory, I'm still confused about why someone would assume that people who can't eat walnuts would prefer to eat ground beef brownies over just. Regular nut-free brownies.
    via u/Unfey
  • 09
    TinyWifeKiki Someone brought Devilled eggs and instead of sprinkling paprika on them they used cinnamon.
    via u/TinyWifeKiki
  • 10
    cherrybounce She opened a can of tiny shrimp and poured it out, liquid and all, on top of a block of cream cheese. That was it. I guess we were supposed to eat it with crackers.
    via u/cherrybounce
  • 11
    Chicken_Scented... We had a potluck today and someone brought some Doritos. People started eating them and complaining that they tasted like dirt. We looked at the bag and it had a promo for Mockingjay part 1. The chips expired in 2014! This was a mixed department pot luck and we haven't found the person that brought the 9 year old chips.
    via u/Chicken_Scented_F***
  • 12
    Tying_pyrope "Homemade fried chicken." Which translated to 'chicken that I covered in pancake batter and breadcrumbs and dropped into a frypan until the outside looked cooked.' It wasn't even seasoned.
    via u/Tying_pyrope
  • 13
    Kitten_spawn At my previous job, I had a coworker that would frequently cook food because it was his "passion" and he would bring it in to share with everyone. On a few occasions, someone would get ill after, but infrequently enough that people wrote it off as a coincidence. This coworker goes out on PTO and asks another coworker to feed his
    via u/Kitten_spawn
  • 14
    12 cats while he is gone/scoop the litter boxes. Unfortunately, it was discovered the coworker was cooking/serving us food in the same pans he was also sometimes using as litter boxes for his bushel of cats. When confronted, he stated he thought this was fine because he washed them after. We never ate his food again.
    via u/Kitten_spawn
  • 15
    jirohen An apple pie, but they didn't. have apple pie spices, like clove, cinnamon, or nutmeg, and said they used taco seasoning by accident and expected people to eat it. I, a dumb bitch who likes to torture themselves tried it, and promptly tossed it into the trash when they looked away.
    via u/jirohen
  • 16
    [d... A korean american coworker brought homemade kimchi, but she admittedly didnt know how to make it and just "winged it". It was fermented wrong and was covered in mold, which she didnt seem to understand was bad. The vegetables were basically half liquified and it smelled like dumpster juice.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 17
    The thing is...half of the chefs at work had learned to make kimchi correctly and safely since various different kimchis used to be on the menu before she was hired. So we all instantly knew it was wrong and unsafe, but no one wanted to tell her.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 18
    Go... Grandma's Jello salad, made with cottage cheese and celery Edit - I love how half the answers are "OMG, that's disgusting", and the other half are "Yeah, I remember that monstrosity"
    via u/GoatEatingTroll
  • 19
    russomd My sister would bring 2 crockpots.... 1 with spaghetti sauce... the other with water and the noodles. The noodles would be cooking in the water all day.
    via u/russomd
  • 20
    CanUFeelltMrKrabs Casserole with a side of roaches. Not even kidding. They crawled out of the bag she brought her dish in. I stopped participating in potlucks after that.
    via u/CanUFeelltMrKrabs
  • 21
    graeflamingo We had a lady who made her special pb fudge. But she wouldn't put it out with all the food. She would walk around with her Tupperware and offer the people she liked a piece. Not more than 1 piece you were allowed to take. If she didn't like you, you didn't get one. This went on for years. The last year she worked there, we all decided to say no thank
    via u/graeflamingo
  • 22
    you when she approached us. Oh and 2 of us brought fudge for everyone at the table spread. She was furious that we foiled her shitty efforts.
    via u/graeflamingo
  • 23
    trguiff An office potluck - as everyone is eating, one of the girls says, "I'm sorry if you find ant cat hair in the green bean casserole. My cat kept getting up on the counter to nibble at the edges." Cue everyone looking at each other like WTF??
    via u/trguiff
  • 24
    remembering_thi... My cousin's wife wanted to make pimento cheese sandwiches for a Super Bowl party. Problem is she had no idea what went into pimento cheese and refused to go to the store because it "couldn't be that hard." So she mixed a bag of shredded cheese, an ungodly amount of mayonnaise, and for the little red bits? Maraschino
    via u/remembering_things
  • 25
    cherry halves Then dumped approximately a half cup of garlic salt in for good measure. I thought they were a dessert because they were pink and couldn't figure out what a pink sandwich would be. It was truly one of the worst things I've ever put in my mouth.
    via u/remembering_things
  • 26
    Woman in green shirt puts food on plate next to man in vest and bowtie and woman who holds tongs playfully
    via Getty Images For Unsplash+

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • 27
    rilloroc Lime jello with Vienna weenies and cherry tomatoes in it.
    via u/rilloroc
  • 28
    eiretara7 A work colleague brought in a half filled casserole dish of little smokies (mini cocktail sausages, probably made up of 2+ animals) to a potluck. I asked her about the recipe and she said that she didn't know. Apparently they were leftovers from a 3 day camping trip she had in eastern Washington. That means they were prepared by someone else at some
    via u/eiretara7
  • 29
    outdoor site, picked over, and then packaged up (hopefully in a cooler? But who knows) and driven at least 5 hours through a mountain pass before they ended up on our conference room table in Seattle. Blech.
    via u/eiretara7
  • 30
    Madame_Kitsune98 Potato salad...with multiple hairs from his head, I hope. I just know they were human hairs, and they were tight and curly.
    via u/Madame_Kitsune98
  • 31
    JohnnyWall A sugarless cake. She realized too far into the process that she forgot the sugar and continued with the decorating. She placed it on the table and didn't think anyone would notice the lack of sugar. We noticed... cakes need sugar.
    via u/JohnnyWall
  • 32
    ogbubbleberry Some kind of "lasagna" made by someone who had no clue what lasagna is. There were layers of pasta; but the rest was things like chicken, grated cheddar cheese, canned jalapeños, mushroom soup, frozen mixed vegetables, spicy mayo etc.
    via u/ogbubbleberry
  • 33
    TheDogmotherPa... A half eaten chicken something dinner from their meal at Olive Garden the previous night.
    via u/TheDogmotherPartTwo
  • 34
    gamergirl007 We had a Buche de Noel baking contest in French class in high school and one girl brought one in that when the teacher cut it had a bunch of hair baked through it. This was my first experience with "never trust what someone else baked at home unless you've seen their kitchen"
    via u/gamergirl007
  • 35
    haeziedaze82 I love telling this story. I worked at a patient care clinic with mostly nurses. One nurse brings mashed potatoes inside of a Walmart bag. Not inside of a bowl inside of a Walmart bag. Mashed potatoes. Loose. Inside of a Walmart bag. That could've previously held raw chicken or some other gross thing. A NURSE.
    via u/haeziedaze82
  • 36
    I ended up posting about it on Facebook later, after having forgot we were FB friends. Oops.
    via u/haeziedaze82
  • 37
    procrastinatorsup... Not really a pot luck, but, a person I used to work with would bring baked goods to quarterly meetings she conducted. Sometimes we'd go in as a team and sometimes we'd go1:1. Everyone would rave about her baked goods, but all I could taste was moth balls.
    via u/procrastinatorsuprem
  • 38
    She lived in an old house. I think she had moth balls in her cupboards to keep mice away. It happened the first time, I thought I was imagining it. The second time I tasted it again. Moth balls are poisonous so I had to discreetly spit it out! In later years I had to politely decline her baked goods.
    via u/procrastinatorsuprem
  • 39
    HyronValkinson Fish tacos, but the taco insides were regular beef lettuce salsa etc. The SHELL was the fish
    via u/HyronValkinson
  • 40
    finalheaven3 It was Halloween party and they brought a Jacko latern shaped meat loaf thing. It was just unseasoned ground beef.
    via u/finalheaven3
  • 41
    [deleted] half of a pie. not half of a pie that was sold that way by the bakery. a leftover half eaten pie.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 42
    [deleted] Had a friend show up with "his wife's specialty". It was deviled ham and cheez wiz scooped onto a ritz. They were also made some time ahead because the crackers were no longer crisp. To make it worse, he walked around with them and his wife telling everyone to try them.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 43
    That was the night I learned that it will be ok to strategically lie about having food allergies.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 44
    [deleted] I'll fall on that sword. I brought Shepards pie to a Christmas party and thought it festive to colour the mashed potatoes green.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 45
    notsleptyet Mushroom and wild rice full of dog hair. Not a strand or two. But FULL of dog hair. Turns out she ran a sanctuary or something
    via u/notsleptyet
  • 46
    ArlapOfDion Church social. Chicken wings baked so dry the looked like mummified body parts.
    via u/ArlapOfDion
  • 47
    Stinkysnarly I once made a brain dip for a work afternoon tea on Halloween. It was a homemade onion & herb dip with paprika that made it pink & used a large brain mould. It looked quite realistic. Very few ate it because it looked too real
    via u/Stinkysnarly
  • 48
    [deleted] My husband and I went to a potluck at a park shelter one time. Someone had brought vegetables and dip. I was reaching for some when my husband nudged me and told me to look closely.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 49
    There were bugs all in the vegetables. I don't think they were from being outside because none of the other food had bugs. I think whoever brought the platter either didn't notice the vegetables were full of bugs, or didn't care.
    via u/[deleted]

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