DIRTY DINING: America's Top 10 Fast Food Restaurants
 

from Dateline study. . .

http://www.msnbc.com/news/992692.asp?cp1=1

This is an excerpt:

Critical violations are a benchmark for judging a restaurant’s cleanliness. Most food regulations mandate they be corrected immediately, and they are the only type of violations we counted in our survey. They include things like handling ready-to-eat food with bare hands or unwashed hands, undercooked meat, improper food holding temperatures, sick employees preparing food, and a host of other potentially hazardous problems.
What may shock you is just how many restaurants had critical violations. More than sixty percent of all fast food restaurants in our sample had at least one critical violation in the last year and a half.
How many total violations did each chain have? Here comes Dateline’s dirty dining survey — it’s a top 10 list where no fast food restaurant wants to come in number one:


10: TACO BELL
The 100 Taco Bells we sampled had the fewest total critical violations, 91, making it the best performer in our survey. But it was not without problems. Recurring violations included dirty food preparation counters and rodent droppings.

9. MCDONALD’S
The golden arches, the 100 McDonald’s we looked at came in with a total of 136 critical violations. Some didn’t have a trained and certified food handler on the job, required by law in many states.
Thompson: “It’s that important?”
Smith-Dewaal: “Absolutely. We can’t have food prepared by people who don’t know that you can’t combine raw meat with cooked meat, with people who don’t understand the importance of proper temperatures in food preparation.”

8. KFC
The 100 KFCs we sampled tallied up 157 critical violations, and two thirds of the “finger lickin’ good” restaurants had at least one critical violation. Remember, it was at a KFC, the Health Department says, little Gianni Velotta picked up salmonella poisoning last year. We’ve now learned that another child was also sickened there, and the same restaurant has since been cited for three more critical violations.
While the Velotta’s have settled a lawsuit against the restaurant, a lawyer for the owner of the franchise contends the salmonella cases did not originate there.

7. SUBWAY
The 100 Subways we looked at totaled 160 critical violations. A recurring problem at the sandwich chain was improper food holding temperatures.
Thompson: “What does that mean?”
Smith-Dewaal: “That means that bacteria in the food that’s already cooked can start to grow, and it can reach levels that can cause serious illness for someone who consumes it.”

6. JACK IN THE BOX
The 100 Jack in the Box restaurants had a total of 164 critical violations. A Ventura, Calif., Jack in the Box was a trouble spot. It had several customer complaints of food borne illness.

5. DAIRY QUEEN
The 100 Dairy Queens we examined totaled 184 total critical violations. One Dairy Queen in Hampton, Va., rang up a number of critical violations last summer for grime, debris, and a inaccurate thermometer.
When Dateline went back recently to take a look, the restaurant invited us in, and showed it had fixed the problem.

4. HARDEES
The 100 Hardee’s tallied 206 critical violations. Again and again inspectors cited the presence of insects and rodents.
Smith-Dewaal: “Rodents and roaches are gross. But more importantly, they can also spread germs from food to food, and carry germs into a restaurant.”
Last May, one restaurant was cited for not having soap in the employee’s sink. Yet, inspectors found employees handling ready-to-eat food with their bare hands.

3. WENDY’S
100 Wendy’s had 206 critical violations. That’s the same as Hardees, but more Wendy’s restaurants had violations. So Wendy’s is number three in our Dateline dirty dining survey/
At a Wendy’s in Mesa, Ariz., inspectors noted repeated problems with food holding temperatures, mice droppings on the shelves, bare hand food contact, and one food borne illness complaint.

2. ARBY’S
The 100 Arby’s had 210 critical violations. The roast beef specialists had recurring violations for improper hand-washing and employees handling ready-to-eat foods with their bare hands.
Smith-Dewaal: And clearly, if the person isn’t washing their hands or using other sanitation practices, they can really make people very sick.

1. BURGER KING
So which fast food chain finished number one on Dateline’s dirty dining list? It’s Burger King. The 100 Burger Kings we sampled rang up a whopping 241 total critical violations. Health inspectors cited a Virginia Burger King for 14 separate critical violations: employees not washing their hands, uncovered food in the fridge, grime and debris found on this ice chute, and on the drink machine at the drive-thru widow. We observed one employee scooping ice into a cup with his bare hands, an apparent critical violation.


SO WHAT’S THE BIG PICTURE?
The 1,000 restaurants we sampled totaled 1,755 critical violations, and 613 restaurants were cited at least once. That’s more than 60 percent with problems inspectors consider potentially hazardous to your health.

I eat Burger King for lunch almost everyday. :(

ETA: The other day when I was at Mc Donald's I was in line and one of the employees was cleaning the ice cream machine with her hands. I looked like she was brushing the dust of the top and the shelf on the bottom. Then she went to get fries for a customer that was in front of me. The customer politely asked her to was her hands first, and she got mad at the woman talking about, "I ain't even touch your fries."

I saw the show and it was a shame. You would think that people would like to keep places that serve food clean, but everyone isn't the same. Common courtesy would tell me that I wouldn't want someone to serve me any food after they have just scratched their azz or dropped it on the floor. Therefore, I wouldn't do it to anyone else. The people that work at these joints either don't think like that or they are just too lazy to put the extra effort in washing their hands, mopping the floor with clean water, sweeping, etc. :rolleyes:

I stopped eating at Burger King Like three years ago after reading a story about insect particle being found in their meat. And I used to love me some Whoopers!

I was in Monroeville today (Pgh suburb) and yet ANOTHER Burger King has closed. There seem to be fewer and fewer of them around here. Everyone right now is too worried about getting hep A from Chi-Chi's.

When I worked for Subway, 10+ years ago, we never wore gloves - however we washed our hands before each customer, in full view of them. I think I prefer that to the people who keep putting the same gloves back on over and over!

Hey YKimber since you are from Cleveland like me :D you know which Burger King I am referencing. Back in high school we used to love to go to the one on the corner of Lee and Harvard. Well back in either 99 or 2000, I was home for MEmorial Day and stopped at the LEe and Harvard BK. I ordered a combo and asked for a strawberry milkshake. She said they were out. Okkkkk give me a vanilla one. Out. Okkkkkkk give me an orange pop. Out. Okkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk give me whatever else they had that I liked. Out. Finally I just said well what in the hayle do you have on a Saturday. They had Dr. Pepper (YUCK) and Pepsi. **le sigh**

Oh yeah I used to work at Taco Bell and one Sunday night we ran out of lettuce. :o But we ran across the street to Pick and Pay (RIP) and bought some. YKimber, this is the Taco Bell on Emery in Warrensville by the KFC and McDs.

I am so mad at yall for going to Pick and Pay to get lettuce!

That's why I don't eat at fast food places in Cleveland anymore.
My sisters used to work at the Mc Donalds on Buckeye. And my one sister said that people used to drop food on the floor.

I work at Charley Steaky in Randall Mall for like 2 days and I was the fry girl and while I was cooking the fries I found a screw in the fries. I had to quit after that I didn't want someone thinking I was doing it on purpose.

I grew up in North Randall literally down the street from Randall Park Mall. I used to spend dag near every Saturday there from like 90-93.

Umm we got our delivery Monday morning but to try to serve tacos without the lettuce is like serving pizza with no cheese. :p

I would have done without lettuce that day!

What about Chik Fil A??
 

I wonder why Chik Fil A isn't on the list...they ALWAYS seem clean and I've always gotten great customer service from them. THere are always more people there for lunch than the other places..

Is it me or does Burger King have a strange smell? That smell kept me out of them. I've seen several BK's close. They're just nasty. I'm not surprised that they are number 1.

I showed this to my mother because she loves BK and Wendy's. She brought up some nasty stories her students told her about fast food restaurants.

She said one student who worked at Popeye's said that they had a 10 second rule. That means if they drop a piece of chicken on the floor and pick it up before 10 seconds they can throw it back into the fryer. :o The student said she thought it was unsanitary and refused to do it. Her boss threatened to fire her because the boss said it wasted money. :mad: The student also said that they rinse the moping bucket to transport ICE. :o

My mother said another student worked at a popular ethnic restaurant in our area. The student said that the kitchen was infested w/ rats and roaches. She said that roaches would crawl up in the rice bag and die. Her manager would make them pick out all of the roaches out of the rice before serving it. :o

I worked at Wendy's and they had the same rule... if it was not longer than 10 seconds pick it up and put it back on the grill, that was supposedly to kill any bacteria that may have gotten on the burger. I worked the grill one time, but I couldn't anymore because they said I was too slow. I would try to put the burgers together all nice and neat, and that took too long, so they put me on the register.

Re: What about Chik Fil A??
 

Chick fil A isn't on the list because for the most part, they are really clean. I consider them to be a grade above the average fast food joint. I worked at Chick fil A in Salisbury, NC and they were really really clean. I think it may be because they are very selective in who gets to own a franchise.
I have also worked at McDonalds, Subway, and Hardees. All were disgusting. Chick fil A was by far the cleanest.