15 Unappetizing Secrets Revealed by Fast-Food Employees

1. “When I worked at McDonald’s, the orange juice machine was only cleaned when an employee would have some and say, ‘This tastes like mold.’ I was usually the lucky one.”

2. “Just don’t eat at Subway. There is zero quality control. I worked with a lady who would mix the tuna salad with her bare hands and her wedding ring on. One day after mixing, she took off her ring to wash her hands and there was an open sore on her finger there. She said moisture would get trapped under the ring. Nasty!! The meatballs also bounce like super balls prior to being cooked.”

3. “I work at Burger King, and I think it is quite bad that the plant-based Whopper patties are cooked in the same broiler as the meat patties. They get meat juices on them and end up not really being plant-based. Also, sometimes the ice dispenser has green algae on it.”

4. “At Denny’s, their syrup dispenser was never cleaned or rotated with another dispenser in the three years that I worked there. The manager would also heat up plastic bottles of the syrup in the microwave before pouring it into the dispenser. He expected me to do this as well, to speed up the time it took to refill the dispenser. Also, no one ever properly cleaned the milkshake blenders. They just got left in the sink with water and rinsed out when you had to make a new one.”

5. “Whenever you get food from Subway, none of the spinach or lettuce is cleaned. It goes straight from the bag to the bin.”

6. “The fried chicken restaurant I used to work at had a mouse infestation. I once watched a manager sweep a dead mouse under one of the counters, rather than pick it up.”

7. “At McDonald’s, we had big things of tea that would need refilling frequently. They were up on a shelf kind of high, so you had to get on your tiptoes to look in. One girl would STICK HER HAND IN to see how full they were. She’d say, ‘We wash our hands all the time!’ Still, NOT OK! The scum under fingernails getting loose in that liquid…gross! It was only one girl that did this, but that was enough to make me never drink tea again!”

8. “One of my first jobs was at a Wendy’s. I was horrified to find out that all the old, overcooked, and stale burger patties got chopped up and added to the chili. It’s just a never-ending chili that way. When there’s too much beef, they just add the mix, and vice-versa. Haven’t had chili at any restaurant since.”

9. “I worked at Wendy’s and McDonald’s. If you want the fastest service, especially during rush hour, go to the drive-thru. Since they time us on how long cars wait, we always prioritize the drive-thru.”

10. “Everything at Starbucks comes frozen. And wild animals won’t eat the sausage on the sandwiches. We left a patty outside for six months once. Untouched, no deterioration.”

11. “I worked at a Burger King for eight years. Whenever the store is getting ready in the morning (before the doors open), none of the food safety rules apply. No gloves, no hand-washing, nothing.”

12. “My daughter worked at a famous fast-food drive-in chain and said she was cleaning out the ice cream machine and found a rat at the bottom.”

13. “I work at McDonald’s, and if you order fries with no salt, we hate you. We need to make them fresh, but that’s not the problem. The problem is they can’t touch the fry receptacle and we have to pour SCORCHING HOT, BOILING OIL–COVERED FRIES directly into the fry box. I have burn scars. We all have burn scars. And don’t get me started on people that order a small. It’s PAPER. You’re killing us.”

14. “I worked at a Canadian coffee shop, and if something’s dropped on the floor, it’s served 80% of the time. Also, everything is frozen, and how old it is is always fudged. Donuts need to be thrown out after eight hours…that didn’t happen often.”

15. “When I worked at a Wendy’s in Colorado, the hamburger patties arrived pre-formed and fresh (not frozen), but on more than one occasion, the packages arrived well beyond their expiration date. The policy was to just make sure the patties were well cooked to kill off any bacteria.”