posted on April 9, 2001 07:59:42 AM
This makes me thankful I am a vegetarian...though this story makes it obvious that nothing is safe anymore...this will make me think twice before eating out again! Thanks for the information thepriest.
posted on April 9, 2001 08:04:50 AM
we grow alot of our own stuff and are in the heart of cattle country; but, i'm starting to lean toward veggies too!
posted on April 9, 2001 08:33:48 AM
How scary! I read a book a few years ago by Robin Cook-I think it was called Toxin and it was on this subject. I couldn't eat meat for weeks.
But this is worse, you always think you're safe getting fruit for your kids. I always check their burgers before they eat and meat in general but I never thought of fruit.
This mostly kills the very young, and elderly and makes everybody else very sick.
Jay
posted on April 9, 2001 05:06:35 PM
I, too read "Toxin" and even without it's gory sensational ending it was quite obviously presenting the facts of life in a slaughterhouse. no, I've never worked in a slaughterhouse but my Dad did and I talked to him about it, when I read that book. He said that there are even more filthy things going on and none of it was exagerated (except the 'shocking' ending). Dad loves, uh 'Swizzler', he also has heart problems, but he so enjoys his little senior steak and potato.
I worked at a coffeeshop in Yuba County, California two years ago. I tried to reason with the manager about sanitation, I complained to the out-of-town owner, finally I filed a formal complaint with the health department. When I was in the health dept workers office discussing this he had left the file for this restaurant on the countertop and I can read upside down as good as right side up. I think he left it open on purpose, maybe. Anyway I read of a series of complaints, serious ones, about this particular coffeeshop. So, I indicated the file and asked why wasn't all this enough to take drastic action on? He said "usually they take action when someone gets hurt". He looked pretty sick of the system, too.
Here are just a few highlights from the top of my memory, I filed an eight-page complaint;
Toilet brush kept in a plastic milk crate with strong cleaning supplies, thrown onto piles of highchair trays which we had to wrestle one out to use when a highchair was needed. I'd clean them with 'windex' NOTHING ELSE WAS AVAILABLE! Most waitstaff did not bother.
The kitchen crew would eat with their bare hands right out of the containers. I several times saw them sitting and smoking in the cool room (for vegies) and get up and yank a frozen sweet roll out of freezer pack. When watermelon was in season for fruit salad as they chopped it into big tubs they'd eat the entire heart themselves in between chopping.
I saw a huge stainless steel sink of lettuce heads in cold water, to allow the sand to settle - but that takes seconds - with two huge prime rib roasts thawing inches away on the drainboard.
The dishwasher/bus boy would be sent to clean the bathrooms or bus tables and then unload the dishwasher without a pause or a rinse of his ancient rubber gloves!
I was mortally shocked to see 'the girls' test food they were reheating for the customers in a microwave with the tip of their bare finger! It was common practice for one particular 'girl' to 'forget' if she'd drawn Pepsi or Diet Pepsi for an order and take a sip. She did it so often I came to realize she did it to make the others laugh. I told her "you can't do that!" More laughter.
The only sink we had to keep all the service area clean was a microscopic 10x12" (guessing.) A bar sink, ok? NO Soap, no I'm not kidding. We couldn't be trusted to keep soap out of the food. Week after week, month after month we'd wash the tables down with just warm water. We got clean bar towels issued each morning, no matter how gross they got we absolutely never were allowed more. If I remember right we'd get 6 bar towels to clean tables after an average of 300 customers a day. They were SO REVOLTING by closing time. If that place had been 24 hours would we have had to use them all night? One or two of the servers as well as myself were concerned enough to get a clean bus tub and soak them in scalding water, but a lot of times it was just too harried, especially at dinner rush, to take the time. I recall especially clearly cleaning a table where a very sick infant had messed and spread it's food (no upchuck) and I hid the cloth and we just went short that night.
posted on April 10, 2001 01:34:34 AM
When I was in my teens I worked at a local Taco ****(wont use their name). I worked for some time and always wondered why the tub containing their melted cheese never was changed. They just kept taking from the new tub and placing it in the old. It was always heated and the whole tub is supposed to be replaced when it gets to the bottom. I asked about it and was told not to worry about it. Later after closing time the old container which was low was removed and packed very weird and put out for the garbage. The guy told me as we were leaving that there was a large hard brown lump at the bottom. The location has been in the news regualerly about the mouse infestation. So I can only assume it was one who had fallen in.
Worked at Domin*** Pizza too...when you call up there your file comes up on the screen and there is a number code at the top. You quickly learn the numbers are codes for good to bad customers who tip well, buy food for staff, complain and complain etc. The food would be prepared appropriately. Cornmeal would be scooped from the floor to roll dough in, or the guy who always had an "itch" would make the pizza. On the other hand, if the buyer tiped well or bought an extra pizza to be left for staff (in affluant area) they got free extra toppings and extras like free soda or wings or something else they liked. (very few of these though. So next time you complain just remember....!
posted on April 10, 2001 05:01:29 AM
When I was a teenager I worked for a Deli that was run by a couple from New York city.
The woman was a real nut case who absolutely did not believe in germs. She felt that germs were something made up by doctors to defraud the public. So you can imaigine her personal and public actions reflected that. She would come to work sick and spread it everywhere.
When she was sick it was always an "imbalance" and she would dose herself with oil or go upstairs and take a hot shower.
If something did not smell bad it was fit to serve. I don't know how she explained that things rot. She was not a real deep thinker.
To her the soda fountain and the dish washer were deep mysteries that were beyond her.
That's why you have service people - and she would call them to come out when a circuit breaker had been thrown. The service people would ask if there was power to the thing and she would say yes-yes because the lights were on after all. Then she would get a $100 repair bill because the breaker needed reset.
