For some people, sometimes, you have to stop for a fast food meal, even if it’s known for being unhealthy and not the best quality food. However, there are also some other things to keep in mind before buying it.
With fast food chains, it’s often difficult for franchise owners to keep track of every single location’s function. Therefore, you’re rolling the dice a bit anytime you try fast food in a different restaurant than usual. For instance, one McDonald’s in a city can run totally differently from another.
Under a Reddit post where fast food workers were describing menu items they’d “avoid” ordering, several of them wrote about the foods and beverages they felt were risky due to cleanliness issues. Read more about the six fast food items employees would suggest avoiding below.
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Circle K Cappuccinos
While Circle K is a convenience store known for providing reliable coffee, which received good reviews from employees, one former worker issued a warning about the chain's cappuccino machine.
"Coffee is surprisingly good and machines were well maintained, but the cappuccino and iced coffee machine was disgusting and impossible to clean despite best efforts," explained the employee.
The same worker noted that an engineering professor from a nearby university inspected their store's cappuccino machine and recalled, "[He] even told me he should use it in class as an example of poor design."
Little Caesar's Thin Crust Pizza
A former Little Caesars employee warned against ordering the thin crust pizza, revealing that while the chain's regular dough is made fresh in-house, the thin crust is a different story.
"It comes premade and can sit in an open cardboard box for days or even weeks," they claimed, raising concerns about freshness and sanitation.
Again, this is another issue that depends on how the location is run, but it's a good thing to know, just in case you want to exclude that specific type of pizza.
Dunkin' Donuts Frozen Drinks
While there aren't many complaints about Dunkin's plain coffee or hot lattes, there are reportedly a lot of issues with the machines they use to make frozen, slushy drinks like their Coolatta and Frozen Coffees. You should be on the lookout for your location's frozen drink machine, as it may not get cleaned as often as you'd hope.
"Everything is fine except frozen drinks made with the old island oasis machine," commented an employee. "The old machine was never cleaned well enough."
Another employee wrote that their Dunkin' location had been open for "nearly two years" and that "it had never been cleaned outside of the splash guard and occasionally the ice hopper."
"There was mildew everywhere, and some pink gunk was growing inside it," they added.
Wendy's Chili
Wendy's famous chili gets mixed reviews, as it's notoriously made with leftover hamburger patty meat that doesn't get used throughout the day. While many feel it's a great way to prevent food waste, others are "grossed out" by the idea of using older bits of hamburger, even by employees.
"The chilli kinda grosses me out," wrote an employee.
"We take all the hamburgers we didn't sell and put them in a bucket and put them in the sink and then run water on them so the meat gets all mushy and wet. Then we put the bucket in the big freezer till morning. Then we cook the chilli with the soggy hamburger, and two bottles of premade mixes."
McDonald's Milkshakes
Given that it's one of the most famous and longest-running fast food chains, McDonald's has seen its fair share of complaints. Employees revealed that at some locations, the ice cream and milkshake machines are "down" because they're being cleaned, and if they're always available, it could mean they're not getting routinely cleaned out.
"If you go to a McDonald's that has a shake machine that is always working, don't get a shake there," commented an employee.
"If you go to one that is always 'broken,' it's perfectly safe to get a shake there. The reason the machine is down so often is that it has a really long cleaning cycle that needs to be done frequently."
Taco Bell Iced Tea
Most people are so focused on getting their Baja Blast at Taco Bell, but the fast food chain also offers some refreshing iced tea from Lipton. However, what they make and serve it in may not always be the cleanest, according to some employees.
"Don't get iced tea from Taco Bell," added an employee.
"The inside of the canister at my Taco Bell would always have a thick, tissue-y brown film all around it. My Taco Bell was actually cleaner than your average Taco Bell, but it was really easy to get away with not cleaning that thing, or otherwise just forget to."
