5 Things You Should Avoid at Fast Food Restaurants – According to the Employees

A user on the popular social news website Reddit, posed a question to fast food workers that is very relevant to today's society. Americans eat out an average of 4-5 times a week -  it's delicious, quick, easy and you can usually satisfy your hunger within 10 minutes.  But more often than not, fast food is unhealthy, and sometimes even unsanitary. The question they asked fast food workers of America is:

"What is the one menu option at your employment that you would recommend people never eat...?"

The question garnered a plethora of responses. Here are some of the highlights and the top 5 things you should avoid at fast food restaurants according to the employees . Hope you're not hungry.

Grilled Chicken

Employees from several fast food restaurants including McDonald's, Wendy's, Subway, and Burger King, said that they've seen the grilled chicken breasts smothered in gobs of margarine to keep them from sticking.  And some said that at times the chicken is defrosted in tubs of hot water.  This is bad because hot water on raw meat will cause bacteria to grow that could get you sick.

Various Items at SOME Subways

Subway employees all seemed to agree the quality of your food depends on the restaurant.  If the food colors don't look right, if the floor is a mess, if it smells, then you're at a bad Subway. Watch out especially for the tuna, seafood salad, and chicken at those Subways.

Ice From the Soda Machine

The consensus from many employees at plenty of different chains was that the drink machines are tough to clean and keep mold-free. And when they do clean them, their priorities are the more visible areas.

Wendy's Chili

Apparently the meat comes from burnt hamburgers that were on the grill too long.  Those go in the fridge, then eventually get chopped up for the chili.  If you are into crispy meat, I guess this is not a completely horrible thing - as long as they do in fact refrigerate it before adding it to the chili later.

McDonald's Chicken Nuggets

And many of the most disgusting stories centered around McNuggets, including one guy who says he once left a bag of 100 nuggets out for too long and they somehow melted into a liquid. Wah?? We weren't aware that chickens had a melting point - gross.

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Food safety and the way in which it is handled highly depends on the quality of management at the restaurants, but the above seem to be relatively universal concerns around the fast food industry.

Here's some food for thought:

[Reddit]