Fast food restaurants are pretty much found in every corner of the world, and with that
comes certain things that the employees warn you against eating.
Every employee has a reason for not recommending certain products and some of them are rather
valid - like the possibility that someone could fall ill due to the issues at hand in
the kitchen.
So let’s peek behind the curtain and look at 10 fast food items employees told you to
avoid.
McDonald’s Filet-O-Fish
Sometimes that square shaped fish with a steamed bun and half a slice of cheese from McDonald’s
isn’t that safe to eat.
You see, while it’s been said that the fish is supposed to be put in the fryer and then
served within a timeframe of about thirty minutes since it’s been cooked, that is
not always the case.
This is especially true at some of the twenty-four-hour restaurants, since some employees may leave
the fish sitting in the heating tray for several hours.
Not only is it going to sit there and get increasingly nasty, but some employees decide,
“eh, good enough” and will serve that hours-old filet-o-fish to you anyway.
They’ve got a lot of work on their hands - throwing out food just to have to cook you
up a fresh one isn’t always high on the priority list.
The reason behind this tough to swallow reality is that this item isn’t as popular as say
a traditional Big Mac or McWrap.
That’s not all though - since it’s not a common item, it’s made significantly less,
which can lead to the issue of old fish being served.
This means that a few things happen when it's ordered.
It’s either being made fresh since the employees are not stretched for time, as they sometimes
are during a graveyard shift, or it’s being tossed onto the bun due to the fast-paced
environment that puts pressure and, in some cases, even timers on the length of the order
creation.
Ice in your soda
Ice in your drink may seem rather normal since the purpose is to actually cool it off, and
keep it that way - but there’s some hidden information in that ice.
While the intended purpose does happen, there seems to be two secrets behind it.
The first being that if you’re not the person pouring the ice yourself, chances are that
you’re losing out on a fair bit of soda due to the increased amount of ice.
On top of that, it was found by a twelve-year-old Florida student that in at least five of the
tested fast-food restaurants, the ice was actually dirtier than the restaurant’s toilet
water 70% of the time.
This means that the bacterial content was significantly higher than that of the toilet’s
flushing liquid.
In fact, she discovered the results by ordering cups of ice and then putting them in sterile
beakers.
She then went ahead and decided to go to the bathroom, flush the toilets once and collect
some samples.
She didn’t mention which restaurants she performed the study with specifically, but
the conclusion seems obvious: the bathrooms might be cleaned more often than the ice dispenser.
You see, most people don’t think of germs when putting ice into their drink, but they
most certainly do when going to the bathroom.
Despite that, the incident certainly makes you want to remind the cashier that you’d
like the drink with no ice in it, just to be on the safe side.
Steak and beans from Taco Bell
Steak and beans, it sounds fairly simple and shouldn’t be messed up in any real way right?
Well, you’d be wrong to believe that.
According to one employee, the steak, after sitting around for a while, turns into a consistency
similar to that of hair gel.
I don’t know about you, but that’s not really the texture I’m looking for in a
steak.
As for the beans aspect, they’re made from a rehydrated bundle of ingredients.
This isn’t particularly good as many people should expect Taco Bell’s food to be fresh
and at least somewhat healthy.
However, it’s fairly safe to assume that even the possibility of eating steak that’s
been sitting there for a while and that has a thicker than normal form to it, might not
be the best motivator for a customer to drop their hard earned cash on a burrito.
Unfortunately, this might also hint to a few more issues.
The food doesn’t appear to be in its purest form.
What this means is that the company might not be getting the best of the best quality
for their consumers, despite the general want for that in restaurants.
Ultimately, it can lead to issues like people simply not coming back to the taco food chain
since even employees are warning people against consuming certain foods.
Wendy’s Chili
If there’s one type of fast food that you know is tasty and can actually warm you up
on a cold autumn evening, it’s chili from Wendy’s.
From the chunks of meat to the optional cheese and hot sauce, you can always ensure that
you’re getting a chili that tastes similar to what your mother used to make.
That would all be true, except for the allegation that those chunks of meat are actually leftovers
from the grill that got collected into a container and were slapped into the batch of chili once
there was enough.
But wait there’s more!
You also get to consume some good old fashioned rehydrated beans along with the grilled meat.
This may not be the next thing you order when going to a local Wendy’s for a few reasons.
You see, the meat seems to be from the grill and that would mean that it wasn’t collected
into the container right away.
In short, it’s possibly been covered in grease from the other meats on the grill and
has been sitting in a nasty container which likely only gets washed every hour at best.
Alongside that, the meat is being used as a cost-saving and money making opportunity.
This translates to the company having to not buy new meat by reusing already cooked and
useless meat.
However, on the other hand, this does lead to less food waste, which restaurants are
notoriously guilty of.
So as long the meat hasn’t been sitting for too long, it’s technically not that
bad.
Well.
We’ll let you decide.
Barbecue Sandwiches By KFC
Kentucky Fried Chicken isn’t exactly known for their barbecue sandwiches but is rather
popular due to their fried chicken, as their name suggests.
This might be a good thing too since its supposedly been said by one of their employees that the
chicken in this particular bbq sandwich is stale and dipped in barbecue sauce, after
which it is left in a heater for a month.
While this is a pretty wild sandwich if that’s the case, it’s certainly not something that
you’re going to want to consume by any means since it’s been sitting around for such
a long time.
In reality, the employee even went as far to mention that the chicken was so stale that
it could not even be given to homeless shelters.
This is actually a serious issue when you think about the important aspect of serving
food fresh.
There’s a good reason behind people freaking out when they don’t find fresh food in a
restaurant and that’s simply due to two reasons.
The first being that it tastes better and the second, and most important, is food safety.
Nasty meat drenched in barbecue sauce to mask how nasty it is, and then tossed in the heater,
does not exactly sound up to code.
However, this entire fiasco is likely due to the classic cost-saving measures that come
off as a normal occurrence for fast food joints.
The Quesorito from Chipotle
While this item is rather unique due to the ability to have to a burrito with a quesadilla
shell, it’s something that will anger both the employees and customers at the Chipotle
restaurant.
The simple fact is that it's going to take a fair bit of time to actually cook it since
the item is less popular, this means that it’ll not only take longer to prepare for
you during a rush, it might also have some older ingredients in it.
You see, if the store is being rushed, you might find yourself eating some meat or other
ingredients that have been sitting outside the fridge for a rather long time.
If this is the case, which it may or not be since it really depends on the person in the
kitchen and the level of care they have for the customer, you’ll probably find yourself
consuming some nasty meat, cheese, and even vegetables.
Despite all of that, you do have one advantage on your side of the counter.
Just ask for it completely fresh each time your order it.
This means that you’ve made a special request and are aware that it’s going to take some
time to make, but at least you know the people in the kitchen are basically being ordered
to cook it up like a new batch.
Hopefully, they oblige.
The BLT from Steak n Shake
Bacon, lettuce, and tomatoes, a classic meal in many restaurants and homes but perhaps
not the best thing to have punched into the order system at your city’s Steak n Shake.
Once again an employee described the cost-cutting monster that everyone is becoming all too
familiar with these days.
The problem with the sandwich, in this case, is that it doesn’t actually come with enough
ingredients in it.
For example, you might find yourself being cheated out of your four strips of bacon by
only getting two.
This doesn’t even make the rest of the meal cheaper for you either, it still remains at
around six dollars or so.
The simple fact is that some people are paying for something that they’re not getting.
And it’s not like a BLT is that hard to find elsewhere.
Steak n Shake’s handling of the sandwich is deceptive and will leave the restaurant
with a bad reputation in the long run.
If people pay for something and their needs simply aren’t being met, they’ll go somewhere
else and spread the bad word about the local shop that was cheating them of two strips
of bacon.
That’s half of your promised bacon!
It’s practically blasphemy.
Tuna sandwiches from Subway
Subway is a pretty good sandwich shop, most people enjoy their foods but according to
a few employees, you should probably steer clear of anything that involves tuna.
Their warning stems from experiences and knowledge, alongside their apparent brand-specific distrust
for the substance.
In one case, the individual claimed that they would walk on shift and then simply toss the
tuna out by looking at it.
What this means is that it was at best several days old and obviously not something a customer
should be served.
As for the makeup of the tuna spread, it appears to be loaded with around eighty percent mayonnaise,
which is far from good for our arteries and something that many people might overlook
when eating something believed to be healthier than a burger.
Couple the two together and you’ve basically got rotten mayonnaise and some bread slapped
together.
Clearly, the food is far from safe to consume, and that means anyone who did, either managed
to get lucky or suffered the hidden consequences of their choice.
Roast beef from Arby’s
There’s a hidden fact over at Arby’s regarding their roast beef, which many people would
not ever believe to arrive in the form of a meat paste, which apparently solidifies
after three hours in an oven.
That’s not all though, you might still end up with some day old roast beef if you manage
to show up when the place just opens.
Although, in that case, it was simply held in the heating oven all night.
The only thing that might really concern a customer who’s aware of the roast beef starting
state would be why it arrives like that.
It might not be fresh since it needs to sit in the oven for hours on end simply to become
entirely edible.
As to why it’s arriving in the state that even supermarket roast beef doesn’t come
in, can be tossed up to one possible reason.
Simply put, it’s being ordered from a company that might be sending it in that form to reduce
costs.
However, there doesn’t appear to be any huge issue with this for many people as even
the employee admitted that the food tasted good.
This translates to the meat being of decent quality or being handled with care as opposed
to being the cheapest of the cheap.
Still, food showing up in a form it’s not normally found in is a little disconcerting.
Perkins scrambled eggs
Eggs are pretty important but that doesn’t mean that they’re always safe to consume.
When handled incorrectly, it can certainly cause someone to spend time on the painful
side of the bed.
In this case, it’s not really how they’re handled but rather the manner by which they
arrived and are left in that can really disgust someone.
Perkins scrambled eggs are said to first sit in the hot kitchen all day in a five-gallon
bucket.
Which if that isn't enough to cause some concern, the bucket isn’t always emptied; sometimes
more eggs are just thrown on top to fill it up for the coming day.
Then there’s the fact that the bucket can be cleaned out but apparently only when ordered
so by the kitchen manager, who seems to operate on the system of smell to determine if the
bucket needs washing.
The issue with that system being used is that it’s not always correct.
You see, the egg mixture might smell fine but still be riddled with bacteria that isn’t
visible to the human eye.
Following your nose instead of food safety regulations just doesn’t pass the sniff-test.
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