Is there any fast food restaurant that takes precautions againt bacterial contamination? I have gotten afraid to eat in fast food or other restaurants because of the danger of bacterial contamination. Am I nuts or what? I think that actually the level of cleanliness in most outlets is minimal.
Just take a look at the bathrooms at McDs or Wendys - yuck.
Look at how often the people you know eat fast food. Then look at how often the people you know get sick from fast food. Then make an informed decision. Frankly a lot of this world is pretty darn dirty. I’d try not to freak out too much about it.
I’m sure that any company in the foodservice business “takes precautions againt bacterial contamination”. I think it’s unfair to assume that just because fast food restaurant patrons won’t make the effort to only pee in the toilet, or make sure that their paper towels land in the trashcan, that the food served there is more dangerous than at an upscale restaurant. I’ve never personally seen any fast food joint that prepares food in the bathrooms. In fact, almost every fast food place I’ve been to prepares the food in plain view of the customers, where they can’t make secret mistakes.
Although there are many reasons I no longer eat fast food, neglect of health safety on the part of the employees is not one of them. I have no illusions that non-fast food restaurants’ food is more sterile than food at Mickey D’s.
Can’t stress enough!! Don’t eat it!!
shakes his head
Sorry, I just finished the book Fast Food Nation
But in complete seriousness, it is public knowledge if you want to get online and find a particular restaurants last inspection report. You’ll see exactly what bacteria is in the fast food restaurants as opposed to sit down and a couple courses later type places. 
was that a simulpost?whatmove
My daughter works at a well-known fast food chain, and I can assure you that the guidelines to which they are expected to prepare food are a hell of a lot tougher than you’d find in most domestic kitchens. The company itself pays people to go to their stores as “mystery customers”, purchase food and rate the store on a checklist which is worthy of NASA (this includes checking the internal temperature of the food upon purchase and at specified intervals thereafter).
Where the system can fall down is if an individual shift manager slacks off. My daughter works under a number of different shift managers and tells me that each enforces the company policies to a different standard. Friends whose children work for rival food chains tell the same story - you’d be surprised at just how strict the food preparation, cooking temperature and time, and holding time guidelines at these places are. Breaches of the guidelines do happen, but only when an individual worker doesn’t stick absolutely to what they have been taught.
I’m not suggesting these chains set their standards so high out of altruisim - realistically, they make much more inviting targets for litigation than the local fish and chip shop; bad publicity costs them dearly, both in terms of custom and in terms of selling their franchises. That’s one reason why so many checks and balances are built into their system that bacterial contamination should be an extreme rarity and even when it occurs it will indicate that someone didn’t do follow their job description properly. The individual contractors who supply the food to the chains are subjected to extremely stringent standards, just as the chain employees are, and believe me, it just isn’t worth losing the supply contract for those big chains by cutting corners on those standards.
My biggest problem with the fast-food chains is the sheer wastage of food which occurs due to these standards (most of the chains here put anything past its holding time in sealed bins and the contents are sold to farmers for a pittance), but I’d rather pay the extra cost adherence to those standards costs the consumer than have those standards dropped.
In short, there’s probably less reason to be concerned about bacterial contamination in food purchased from a fast food chain than there is in food purchased from your local milkbar or school canteen.
The majority of the slobs who pee all over the bathroom toilet seat and walls and leave big, stinky messes are customers, not employees. If I were you, I’d be more concerned about sitting on restaurant seating and touching the doors and stair railings than the food.
If there is anything worth being concerned over, IMO, it’s how the food ingredients are stored. Most ingredients can be left frozen and/or sealed in their cardboard boxes until they’re needed, but some things, such as hamburger buns, arrive fresh and cannot be frozen. They are left out until they’re used up. The buns, for example, come in plastic bags and are layered on plastic trays. If you’ve ever had a rat problem-- and the McDs I worked at did, briefly-- then you know that a layer of plastic wrap isn’t enough to keep them out. IIRC, quite a few buns had to be thrown out each morning because they showed signs of being gnawed on overnight.
If this kind of thing bothers you (and I wouldn’t blame you if it did) and you want to know how clean a restaurant is, one thing you can do is keep an eye out for pest traps on the floors of the kitchen and food prep areas. Those things need to be left out, and may be visible from the customers’ areas. Also, check the overall cleanliness of the place-- that’s a good indicator of the establishment’s attitude towards sanitation. And if a cleaning crew doesn’t circulate regularly, and if cleaning equipment is seldom seen, chances are the place is not the most well-kept on the block.
[hijack thread]Just wanted to jump in with my $0.02 worth here…
FWIW I used to work at a McD’s (MANY moons ago) and from my experience, WOMEN customers were more disgusting that MEN customers. Let me explain. Whenever it was time to clean the washrooms (I’m Canadian - we call them washrooms, not toilets), invariably the women’s was a pig sty, the men’s was just dirty. I’ve actually had to pull out a used tampon from the tank portion of the toilet before (quite disgusting, I know).
Anyone else have similar experience with the cleanliness of women’s versus men’s washrooms (or “toilets” for you Americans).[/hijack thread] 