Not to eat in fast food places per their workers

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  • carchie94
    carchie94 Posts: 45
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    In all seriousness, I'm much more concerned about the practices of small local places than places with high levels of standardization like large fast food chains.

    Yes. This.

    Three episodes of Kitchen Nightmares will make you never want to eat out again. At least at some chains, they've got cameras monitoring the kitchens so customers can see what's going on in the back.
  • Cheeky_0102
    Cheeky_0102 Posts: 408 Member
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    The Wendy's Chili is not made like that (at least it's not supposed to be). I worked at Wendy's as a teenager for a while and the meat for the chili comes in a separate bag, pre seasoned and pre cooked. Just add water.

    And if that fact is untrue, I can only assume that the rest are also probably untrue as well.

    At the Wendy's YOU worked at it didn't happen... but you can't speak for them all.

    I have eaten chili from wendy's where i would have SWORN that it was old hamburgers. To be honest, i consdered it resourceful and not gross. I see nothing wrong with reducing waste.
  • Achrya
    Achrya Posts: 16,913 Member
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    ...I use leftover hamburger/meatloaf in chili the next day. Opps.


    I worked at Subway and let me just say, don't eat the tuna. We just add more tuna and mayo to old tuna and stirred it up day after day, unless there was so little left it wasn't worth the effort/the pan was ultra crusty.
  • Oishii
    Oishii Posts: 2,675 Member
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    Bumping because I find this strangely entertaining.
  • SimplySabR
    SimplySabR Posts: 48 Member
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    Im going to confirm the Wendy's chili - at our store, it was anything that was overcooked, the patty got damaged or fell apart during cooking due to rough handling, or it was not used in a timely manner (we really did stick to that "made fresh" rule, but only because there were always patties cooking, so a fresh one was always available. If it sat for too long, chopped into the chili it would go.

    That said, I really don't think there's anything wrong with it. Your drowning the meat in chili, are you really going to notice that it's overcooked since it's not dry anymore? Do you care that it was handled roughly and fell apart?

    Id rather the restaurant USE perfectly edible food instead of throwing it away.
  • Jennifer_Lynne912
    Jennifer_Lynne912 Posts: 7
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    Ugh that is horrible!
  • sugaree1202
    sugaree1202 Posts: 184 Member
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    I waitressed for 10 years in chain restaurants, pizza joints, diners and mid-level non-franchise restaurants. Honestly, most of the places I worked at were pretty strict on cleanliness and proper food handling - I quit if i wouldn't eat the food myself. The non-franchise restaurants and pizza joints even brought in fresh meat, seafood and vegetables daily and made everything fresh. The chain restaurants microwave most of their meat since it's pre-portioned - like Ruby Tuesday's.

    Diners and Friendly's are by far the worst. Aways check that parm cheese shaker for mold because most diners don't even refrigerate them and just fill them up each night leaving the stuff in the bottom to go moldy. Most diners make the soup of the day from last week's failed special and skip the chicken tenders at Friendly's because they fry a big batch at 10 am that sits under a warmer all day actually skip everything at Friendly's except the ice cream that you buy in a box, I quit after a week bc their kitchen was so gross.
  • smlamb33
    smlamb33 Posts: 342 Member
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    ...I use leftover hamburger/meatloaf in chili the next day. Opps.


    I worked at Subway and let me just say, don't eat the tuna. We just add more tuna and mayo to old tuna and stirred it up day after day, unless there was so little left it wasn't worth the effort/the pan was ultra crusty.

    Good thing Tuna is too high calorie for me to order from Subway! Sounds like a bad case of food poisoning waiting to happen!
  • mnflame
    mnflame Posts: 24
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    I think it probably depends on the restaurant. I worked in two different places for years, never fast food, but both of those places had managers that were crazy about food safety. We used to have health department "drills" where our GM would come through and pretend to be someone from the health department. And we used to clean out the fridges and the coolers every night; it was sidework for both the kitchen and the waitstaff. So, I think that there are individuals that want to cut corners and try to save money or just don't care anywhere, but it's probably unfair to say that all of a particular chain have the same practices.
  • algebravoodoo
    algebravoodoo Posts: 776 Member
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    I wonder if some of these are just practices at that particular restaurant.

    I can honestly and with authority tell you... NO!!! It is scary behind the counter!
  • kmm7309
    kmm7309 Posts: 802 Member
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    The nugget one and grilled chicken one are definitely not true. I worked at a McD's for 3 years and trust me, I have seen raw nuggets left out and they do NOT melt. The battered stuff on the outside goes mushy, and that is about it.

    The grilled chicken is kept frozen until it is put on the grill. It takes I think it was 7 minutes to cook, being turned halfway through.

    This was in Canada.

    Sherrybaby, you are describing American McDonald's food too. Nuggets don't melt, and the chicken is kept frozen like it is in Canada.

    No offense but do you think that potlucks are any better for you? Nobody thinks "ew, I'm full of germs, better not lick the spoon and then re-use it." I am a stickler to cleanliness practices in my own kitchen BECAUSE of working in fast food.
  • ChristinaR720
    ChristinaR720 Posts: 1,186
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    Meh ill still eat fast food

    Yep. My mom was a health inspector for about 40 years. There were restaurants we were forbidden to eat at (due to cleanliness and code violations), but fast food restaurants like McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's, etc. were fine (except KFC).
  • El_Cunado
    El_Cunado Posts: 359 Member
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    I worked at Subway and let me just say, don't eat the tuna. We just add more tuna and mayo to old tuna and stirred it up day after day, unless there was so little left it wasn't worth the effort/the pan was ultra crusty.

    That never happened at the Subway I worked at. We would use up all the tuna than grab a new bin. If there was any left at the end of the night, we put it in the walk-in fridge for the next day.
  • HotrodsGirl0107
    HotrodsGirl0107 Posts: 243 Member
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    What I got from this thread is that cleanliness, food quality/safety, hygeine and the like are going to vary from establishment to establishment...
  • algebravoodoo
    algebravoodoo Posts: 776 Member
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    What I got from this thread is that cleanliness, food quality/safety, hygeine and the like are going to vary from establishment to establishment...

    Exactly! I don't really eat fast food very often at all, but when I do, I have to be able to see the prep and cook areas.
  • Sabine_Stroehm
    Sabine_Stroehm Posts: 19,263 Member
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    Is any one really surprised by this? Surely no one thought fast food was good food?
    Lots of folks on here think fast food is a fine staple in their diets.
  • MyJourney1960
    MyJourney1960 Posts: 1,133 Member
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    Lol anyone watch 'kitchen nightmares'? This stuff happens in other places, not just fast food.

    There are two issues - ( a) is the food healthy for you ( is it 'from scratch' or highly processed a and/or laden with sugar in one form our another), and (b)what standards of hygiene are they following. You can have the same issues in a fancy restaurant as in a fast food place. This is why I rarely eat out. Plus it's invariably cheaper to make my own food...
  • SteelySunshine
    SteelySunshine Posts: 1,092 Member
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    The Wendy's Chili is not made like that (at least it's not supposed to be). I worked at Wendy's as a teenager for a while and the meat for the chili comes in a separate bag, pre seasoned and pre cooked. Just add water.

    And if that fact is untrue, I can only assume that the rest are also probably untrue as well.

    They did it at the Wendy's I worked at. I never saw a bag of meat for just chili the whole time I was there (about a year and a half), I didn't care the meat was over cooked or mishandled patties, I still ordered chili regularly. When the chili meat did become an issue for me was when I made an attempt at calorie counting, I was like um I don't think the calorie info can be accurate. So, I stopped eating the chili for that reason.
  • hungryhobbit1
    hungryhobbit1 Posts: 259 Member
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    The nugget one isn't true.

    Interesting, none the less. I am sure there are many "weird" stories like this that are true, though.

    Just out of curiousity, not trying to start an argument, how do you know this is not true. The reason I ask is because my oldest son eats them whenever we go to Macdees. If they really are that disgusting I don't want him eating them anymore. I know that they are really unhealthy anyway, which is why we don't eat there very ofter, but if the nuggets are really that bad I would like to know.
    Thanks.

    My daughter just finished up a fourth grade science experiment where we took the unadulterated version of a food item and the processed/preserved version of a food item and compared how they changed over time. One of the pairs we used were McDonald's chicken nuggets and a plain boiled chicken thigh.

    Over the course of the month we ran the experiment, one of the four nuggets eventually grew a small black spot of mold. Other than that, they looked exactly the same as the day we bought them.

    I don't see how a bag of nuggets left out on a counter could melt after a few hours.

    This is not to say that they are healthy or good food for children, but as you say you don't eat there very often anyway.
  • El_Cunado
    El_Cunado Posts: 359 Member
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    What I got from this thread is that cleanliness, food quality/safety, hygeine and the like are going to vary from establishment to establishment...

    ...and from worker to worker.

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