Fast foods that should be avoided......

55drum

Don't know if I'll ever go back.....    LINK

1. McDonald's chicken nuggets and any McCafe drink. You can ask for fresh nuggets, but avoid the fancy beverages. Apparently, the machines are hard to clean.

2. Subway egg and tuna salad sandwiches. The salads come from a bag and are heavily mixed with mayonnaise. The cold cuts are kept in a smelly syrup.

3. Pizza Hut pizza. Chances are the dough is old, oily and handled without gloves.

4. KFC's BBQ sandwich. The chicken is too old to even give away. It's soaked in barbecue sauce until it can be pulled apart.

5. Wendy's chili. The beef comes from old, dried-up meat on the grill that's re-heated

Chris_Wang

Reusing old beef seems resourceful to me.

I don't use gloves when I make pizza at home and I feed that to my kids.

Now of course I'm just being snarky, but in reality, even the highest end steakhouses have some horror stories from the kitchen.

gerhardk

I prefer good hand washing practices to gloves, often the food service workers think that the gloves are for the protection of their hands not the food.  This results in them not changing there gloves after doing things that will result in cross contamination.

Gerhard

P.S. I try to avoid fast food chains for anything other than coffee, sometimes when travelling it is hard to do.

SmokeyPitt

I worked at Wendy's for 2 weeks about 19 years ago .  I can confirm that 19 years ago what you the article states is true, but misconstrued.  It is just a burger patty that stayed on the flat top a little too long to serve on a burger.  Basically if you were on the grill during a busy time, you kept it loaded up with burger patties.  If a patty stayed on the grill too long, it would go in a warming drawer and it mixed in the chili later.   Honestly I don't see anything wrong with that...everyone browns ground beef and makes chili, and often reheats it. 

I know that restaurants use similar practices to avoid food waste.  For example, if you see a prime rib sammich or french dip on the menu at lunch, that is probably the prime rib that didn't sell during the dinner service the previous night. 

KiterTodd

55drum said:

Don't know if I'll ever go back.....    LINK

1. McDonald's chicken nuggets and any McCafe drink. You can ask for fresh nuggets, but avoid the fancy beverages. Apparently, the machines are hard to clean.

Ahhh, #1 explains some things for me...

When McDs first came out with "new" coffee and McCafe, I was impressed.  The coffee was smooth and as good as the best diner coffee.  And the Lattes, while not consistent, had a flavor almost as good as Starbucks for half the price.  I was a fan.  Since then the quality of all the beverages is crap.  The coffee which used to be smooth now tastes like a dirty old coffee pot.  The equipment must not be getting cleaned.  The fast food average coffee taste is now consistent at all McD restaurants.


(I didn't watch the video but that story didn't provide any backup for the information.  I am skeptical of any internet stories that provide few details, are ad heavy, and contain a subject line that may just be there to pull in clicks!)

Miked125

I worked at Mcdonald's for six years to get through college, just avoid it all. I can smell a Mcdonald's burger and know how fresh it is.... Also the milkshake machine is very hard to clean and most people don't care, so it becomes a bacteria trap.  

Lit

I worked in alot of restaurants growing up and most were either expensive restaurants or private country clubs. I saw just as bad things happen in private country clubs. Not eating out is the only way to avoid all this. One thing I realized is that the chefs special is normally what is about to go bad and they need to sell it.

fishlessman

ahhh...so real chili has no beef

GATraveller

Haven't eaten at McDonalds in 7 years (I'm proud to say).  If I have to eat fast food I do my best to stick with Chick-Fil-A.

Griffin

You could just change your list to:

1. All of them.

gdenby

I mostly give fast food a pass unless I'm one the road, and haven't any idea about decent local places.

-1 on nuggets. Haven't had any good fries from McD for some time, they used to be a treat. Haven't had anything more than passable from KFC for a few years. Most places it seems to be a 50-50 toss up. Had 1 good sandwich at Subway. Next time I went, was not as good as anything I would have tossed together from my 'fridge. Only place I've been recently that has about an 80% success is Popeye's.

buzd504

gdenby said:

I mostly give fast food a pass unless I'm one the road, and haven't any idea about decent local places.

-1 on nuggets. Haven't had any good fries from McD for some time, they used to be a treat. Haven't had anything more than passable from KFC for a few years. Most places it seems to be a 50-50 toss up. Had 1 good sandwich at Subway. Next time I went, was not as good as anything I would have tossed together from my 'fridge. Only place I've been recently that has about an 80% success is Popeye's.

Crappy local places are still better than fast food.

TUTTLE871

Some days after a night of partaking in any alcoholic beverage that's in my site I want a Arby's beef and cheddar with potato cakes.

Just sayin!

coffeeguydenton

gerhardk said:

I prefer good hand washing practices to gloves, often the food service workers think that the gloves are for the protection of their hands not the food.  This results in them not changing there gloves after doing things that will result in cross contamination.

Gerhard

P.S. I try to avoid fast food chains for anything other than coffee, sometimes when travelling it is hard to do.

Of all the things to get at a fast food chain, coffee should be the last!  Haven't found a decent cup of joe from a chain yet.  Either brew it at home from locally roasted beans or go to a local coffee shop that actually knows what they are doing!

coffeeguydenton

GATraveller said:

Haven't eaten at McDonalds in 7 years (I'm proud to say).  If I have to eat fast food I do my best to stick with Chick-Fil-A.

I agree with this on any day but Sunday!  Unfortunately, they still aren't as easy to find as a McDonald's.  When driving home from the hospital late at night, my choices are McDonald's, Jack-in-the-Crack (gross!), Whataburger (tasty, but way too greasy), or a 2 mile detour.  Occasionally I end up breaking down and getting the McD's (by occasionally, I mean at least twice a week, lol).

henapple

Contracting around the food industry I'd say it goes store to store as far as food safety concerns. As far as the food being healthy.. I'd assume very little is fresh and not mega processed. Still, 12 beers in.. a bag of cheese Krystal rectal rockets is awesome.

nolaegghead

I try to avoid all fast food.  Haven't been to McDonalds in 5 years or so, will never go back. 

Pizza - I've never seen any pizzas hand made with gloves on.  The dough is thoroughly cooked so it would be tough to get sick eating a hand thrown pizza unless the guy was using powdered arsenic rather than flour to dust his board.

nolaegghead

http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/1z0fv1/fast_food_workers_of_reddit_what_should_we_not/

hondabbq

It doesn't matter where it is, QSR, or private club, it is in the management team or the chef to maintain food quality and cleanliness.

The statement about a beef dip being on the lunch menu is correct about it being from last nights dinner or left over from a function. How many of you will cook a prime rib to just shave up for sandwiches?

I am currently a chef in Canada, and I can honestly say that I have not had a mark against me for cleanliness or food storage in 12 years of running a kitchens. Don't get me wrong I am not completely infallible, I have had marks for other things but not cleanliness.

 

Bottom line is, if you choose not to eat at a certain restaurant for health reasons so be it. But for most of the comments from the Reddit I take with a grain of salt. I guarantee some of the posts are from tainted employees who will do anything to bad mouth the company that "wronged" them.

nolaegghead

I try not to eat at places where my food is prepared by minimum wage workers.

rcone

I was talking to a food scientist from Subway at a trade show and he refer to their lunch meat as "a meat flavored sponge" 

SkinnyV

My dad won't get ice from machines after what he has seen remodeling fas stations.
Said it was horror what was in those lines and machines.

gerhardk

The thing that bothers me when I go into a food prep area is if they put card board boxes on food preparation surfaces.  You see the delivery folks unload trucks into the parking lot which could have anything from motor oil to dog piss on it, then the next day you see the box on a food preparation area maybe next to your lunch.  I know you can get over critical but there are common sense things that should and shouldn't be done to food or around food.

Gerhard 

Zmokin

Lit said:

I worked in alot of restaurants growing up and most were either expensive restaurants or private country clubs. I saw just as bad things happen in private country clubs. Not eating out is the only way to avoid all this. One thing I realized is that the chefs special is normally what is about to go bad and they need to sell it.

Same here, if you're queasy about food handling, no restaurant can be trusted to be safe.

If you choose to ignore what could and does go on in restaurant kitchens like I do, then enjoy your meal. I worked at Fast Food, a Smorgasbord, and a high-end clubhouse steak house.  I have horror stories from all 3 that were not my doing, just my observing.  OK, one was my doing but it was at the explicit direction of the management.  I had slipped on the slippery kitchen floor at the smorgasbord and spilled a pan of roast-beef all over the disgusting floor.  The manager told me to scoop up the meat back into the pan, pour more gravy over it, and take it out to the food line.  So that's what I did.

Tjcoley

Watch the movie Fast Food Nation, makes you really think twice.  I enjoy Chick fil A once in a while, and my grand daughter loves it.  Very kid friendly, from the disposable placemats, the staff coming around to the tables offering to take your trash or get you a refill, menu offering grilled instead of fried chicken.  Great kids playground.  Always clean and friendly. 

For burger fast food, prefer the regional places - Cheeburger - Cheeburger, or Jakes Wayback Burger.  Fresh ground and made fresh.

Spaightlabs

Griffin said:

You could just change your list to:

1. All of them.

This. If you think what makes a McNugget bad is that it isn't fresh...

Thatgrimguy

Guess I'm the oddity. I worked at a Chili's, a Duffy's, and a Sonic while I was in high school and college at different points. I ate and still eat in all of the above and never saw anything that made me 2nd guess that decision. It's mostly cleaner than your Grandma's kitchen and her prized dishes.