Fast Food Restaurants... — Forum Archive

5 Dec 2007, 12:35

A BBC consumer programme called 'Watchdog' has reported today on the hygiene levels in fast food restaurants in the UK.

A microbiologist and an Environmental Health officer said that the staff in one restaurant may as well have been wiping the tables with a toilet brush as the resulting levels of harmful organisms would probably have been lower. 12% of restaurants were in the 'risk to health' category.

The places tested, regarding the cleanliness of tables and trays were:

McDonalds - borderline acceptable (said they'd send a memo round)

Burger King - non-alarming levels (said they'd send a memo round)

Subway - negligible levels

KFC - non alarming levels

Pret A Manger - negligible levels

However, harmful organisms found on cleaning cloths used in two of these chains showed:

McDonald's London - E-coli, Staphylococcus Aureus (raw meat and fecal matter and other bodily fluids) 42 x safe limit for human use - they are 'reviewing the situation'

KFC Birmingham - E-coli, Staphylococcus Aureus (raw meat and fecal matter and other bodily fluids) - they say 'immediate action has been taken'.

:sick:

From the report, it looked like the chains had pretty good procedures in place, but some of the staff just weren't adhering to them - dirty cloths being used, no disinfectant used, etc...

Anybody fancy a curry instead?

:nod:

5 Dec 2007, 13:51

i worked in Maccies when i was 15

we had a table for the staff in the basement where we could eat their cheapskate offerings. measly hamburger and small chips usually. above the table on the ceiling was covered in gherkins.

apart from that - and the mouse incident - it was clean.

5 Dec 2007, 14:22

A fast food place near me, which will remain nameless, has its delivery of buns around 5am. The delivery sits in open racks (in wrapping, admittedly) outside the back of the fast food place until brought in an hour or so later. I've sat watching a HUGE number of pigeons pecking through the wrapping to get to the burger buns and feasting for a good 45 minutes.

Okay, I was waiting to be picked up to go to work and had nothing better to do, but that made me think only a clown would allow that to happen to stock they intended to sell for human consumption.

:sick:

5 Dec 2007, 14:38

Chris Nash wrote: I've sat watching a HUGE number of pigeons pecking through the wrapping to get to the burger buns and feasting for a good 45 minutes.

In KFC they throw the pigeons in the buns with mayonnaise. To the Colonels secret recipe of course.

6 Dec 2007, 02:05

King John Honest John wrote: i worked in Maccies when i was 15

we had a table for the staff in the basement where we could eat their cheapskate offerings. measly hamburger and small chips usually. above the table on the ceiling was covered in gherkins.

apart from that - and the mouse incident - it was clean.

Same here - the procedures and rules are top-notch, it's just that quite a few of the staff can't be bothered/don't understand the importance of following them... Having worked at Maccy Ds for 3 years as a student, I still can't bring myself to eat there more than about once a year... And yet the dodgy kebab van down the road remains a frequent source of dinner and post-pub snacks... :shrug:

Snorri xxx

8 Dec 2007, 07:40

I worked at a MacD's when I was 16-17,and it was quite similar to what some of you were saying.Course, I'd dip my hands and part of my arms in hand sanitizer when I got home. :laugh: I watched a girl spit in the fries of a customer's at the drive-thru window.I got jipped 66.00 usd back then,so I bitched and then didn't show up for work anymore.For a 16 yr old, that was a bit of money back then,seeing as I was saving for a high school ring.

8 Dec 2007, 08:28

In the late '80s my girlfriend of the time was going to do a report into the hygiene levels at Football grounds. We went to Old Trafford, Maine Rd, Stockports ground, PNE and Bury. We bought a load of Meat and potatoe pies from each ground and then had to take them out and back to a lab for analysis. The story was going to be run by the Sun about 'Danger Football Pies'. Unfortunately all the pies passed the hygiene test with flying clours.

8 Dec 2007, 08:54

I did a 3 week stretch at Maccies aged 16 - fucking hated it, had some right power crazed bitch of a trainee assistant fries manager or something giving it loads of attitude.

Cant remember much about the hygeine and i'm sure I would have remembered owt shocking, although I do remember emptying the fat once and the thick gloves they provided had a big hole in, so I got a lovely hand burn.

But sadly this was 1993, long before the days of Claims Direct.

8 Dec 2007, 11:04

back in my burger king days, I worked the drive thru...so I never got to spunk on anyone's burger...

should I be upset?

8 Dec 2007, 11:30

I worked at In-N-Out once, but being the responsible 19 year old college student that was drunk all the time, I got canned within a month..:D

12 Dec 2007, 11:01

I didn't know that England had BurgerKing, Subway and KFC! Although I did stop once at Pizza Hut on Oxford Street in London.

12 Dec 2007, 14:00

just aswell i have gone off mac major league time, not to say i dont enjoy the odd bite or two, but it has gone down from everyweek to every once in a special menu blue moon

12 Dec 2007, 14:12

DigiDiz wrote: just aswell i have gone off mac major league time, not to say i dont enjoy the odd bite or two, but it has gone down from everyweek to every once in a special menu blue moon

Who would have ever thought that Maccas could be a "special" dining occasion???

13 Dec 2007, 14:43

Jeffari-al-Texani wrote:

DigiDiz wrote: just aswell i have gone off mac major league time, not to say i dont enjoy the odd bite or two, but it has gone down from everyweek to every once in a special menu blue moon

Who would have ever thought that Maccas could be a "special" dining occasion???

erm we currently have the special limited edition for the xmas period, and its the same old bland stuff, just more cheese and mayonaise to hide or attempt to hide the blandness of their sandwiches

15 Dec 2007, 09:39

A quick reply (cause ironically I'm going to work now!) but I work in McDonalds as a person who cleans the dining area, and truth be told I am left to my own devices every shift I do...no-one checks I'm doing the cleaning properly!

And I think I'm the only dining area staff that actually does my job properly!

But I don't think my store is that unhygenic!

15 Dec 2007, 10:55

Jeff, yer can spunk on my Burger any day Dude ! Don't yer know !