# An employee was discovered washing toilet seats in the restaurant's dishwasher? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 23, 2002, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-employee-was-discovered-washing-toilet-seats-in-the-restaurants-dishwasher/138271 "2002-11-23T00:35:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Muad\_Dib](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/35a633/32.png) [@Muad\_Dib](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muad_Dib)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2002, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-employee-was-discovered-washing-toilet-seats-in-the-restaurants-dishwasher/138271/1 "2002-11-23T00:35:15Z")
[A recent Snopes article](http://www.snopes.com/horrors/food/toilet.htm). Umm, is this wrong? Because I used to do this when I worked for Pizza Hut. No one asked me too, the seats were just disgustingly dirty, and no one had ever bothered to clean them before. I did not have any other dishes in there at the same time. Was this not legal? ---
**Author:** ![Manduck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manduck/32/256_2.png) [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2002, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-employee-was-discovered-washing-toilet-seats-in-the-restaurants-dishwasher/138271/2 "2002-11-23T01:37:30Z")
=8^@ ---
**Author:** ![kirk280980](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c77e96/32.png) [@kirk280980](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kirk280980)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2002, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-employee-was-discovered-washing-toilet-seats-in-the-restaurants-dishwasher/138271/3 "2002-11-23T02:34:51Z")
Put it this way, I don’t think I’ll be using my dishwasher for that. Not if I ever wanted to use it for washing dishes again afterwards. Bear in mind that, when a dishwasher pumps out, some of the water will remain in its sump. Next time the machine gets used, that residual water and any poo-particles suspended in it will get sprayed over an entire load of dishes. And then there are certain commercial dishwashers which simply drain the water into a holding tank, and _reuse it for the next load!_ Probably a more appropriate method would have been to take the seats outside, hose them down and throw a bucket of bleach solution over them for good measure. Or even just give them a damn good scrubbing in situ, like one would do at home. ---
**Author:** ![Cubsfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Cubsfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cubsfan)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2002, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-employee-was-discovered-washing-toilet-seats-in-the-restaurants-dishwasher/138271/4 "2002-11-23T03:20:07Z")
I don’t think it is dangerous. The water in your home dishwasher gets up to around 150F or so. THose big restaurant dishwashers get closer to 200F. Nonthing on your toliet seat is going to survive a trip thru the washer. ---
**Author:** ![Pythagras](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/45deac/32.png) [@Pythagras](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pythagras)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2002, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-employee-was-discovered-washing-toilet-seats-in-the-restaurants-dishwasher/138271/5 "2002-11-23T04:56:12Z")
Ive heard that the grade of meat Taco Bell uses is 10% cow poo. But that could be an urban legend. In any case, whatever poo (and its probably all pee pee, if anything) is left will be the most sterilized poo in existance. ---
**Author:** ![kirk280980](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c77e96/32.png) [@kirk280980](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kirk280980)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2002, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-employee-was-discovered-washing-toilet-seats-in-the-restaurants-dishwasher/138271/6 "2002-11-23T06:47:34Z")
Sterilised or not, I don’t find the thought of that crap (excuse the pun) possibly being sprayed over my dishes all that appealing. The high temperatures might make it safe, but it’s still, you know… icky. Put it this way, if you washed toilet seats in the restaurant dishwasher, would you want the customers to know about it? I know I wouldn’t want to eat there, and something tells me the majority of the public would form roughly the same opinion. ---
**Author:** ![GusNSpot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gusnspot/32/436_2.png) [@GusNSpot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GusNSpot)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2002, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-employee-was-discovered-washing-toilet-seats-in-the-restaurants-dishwasher/138271/7 "2002-11-23T07:06:01Z")
This is a joke, right? _::: Sushi is just an elaborate joke the Japanese are playing on the world. ;;;_