You Deserve A Clean Break, Every Day

It seems restaurants take turns serving up food that sickens the public. This month, about 1,650 Burger King restaurants were forced to suspend selling their primary product, hamburgers, until a new source for meat could be found.

Years ago, I seriously considered purchasing a fast food franchise, and none seemed better than one of the most successful - and profitable - companies known around the world.

I trained for nearly a year, learning a great deal about the business and performing every task: preparing food, working the grill, running the counter, sweeping the floors and wiping tables, and nearly everything else that goes into running a successful fast food operation.

Turnover at the franchises where I trained was high and problems as persistent as you might expect among teenagers working their first jobs. Many of them prepared food while wearing Band-Aids on their hands. Others served customers without ever washing their hands. I was surprised adequate health codes were either nonexistent or not enforced.

Occasionally, workers would rotate from one job to another, running the grill, taking food orders, handling money, packaging food, cleaning bathrooms and sweeping floors. The familiar sign directing “employees must wash their hands before returning to work” was posted, but many of the workers ignored it.

An order for a burger without onions was sometimes filled by blowing the onions off, spilling them back onto the grill or the floor. With laughter, the other workers would squirt a blob of ketchup, rewrap the burger and send it to the customer.

To keep the product flowing, workers ignored the buns and frozen meat patties that fell to the floor. As often as not, this food was retrieved, brushed or wiped, and sold.

Cleaning the shake machines was a tedious job that involved scrubbing rubber O-rings and small metal pieces that required careful cleaning to ensure sterility. Sometimes the machines were cleaned properly and on schedule. At other times, depending on the flow of business, they were neglected.

Depending on the manager, an operation can be well-run or shoddy. Demanding managers are often unpopular, and resentful restaurant personnel sometimes get back at them by deliberately contaminating food, in ways too grotesque to mention. The loser is the customer, whose faith in some restaurants is the result of glitzy television ads that have little relationship to reality.

All you need to assess overall cleanliness in some restaurants is to open your eyes. At one popular franchise that specializes in Mexican food, a young woman was mopping the floor when I entered. She put aside her mop, slipped behind the counter and, with a bright smile, asked: “May I take your order?”

The woman took my money and, without washing her hands, stepped away to help a teenager prepare my food. She seemed offended when I asked her not to handle my food unless she washed first.

Many of the well-known restaurants run kitchens that would make most customers flee if they peeked into areas most of us never see. Despite inspection certificates that tout cleanliness, the kitchens of some restaurants are vermin-infested, and occasionally, rodents have the run of the place. The wonder is not that we occasionally face food crises but that we do not face them more often - and with deadly consequences.

I finally decided not to go into the business.

People who eat at food carts parked on the sidewalk often are taking great risks. Some cart operators have no sink where foods can be properly washed.

There’s no practical way to police the hundreds of thousands of restaurants and chains in America. Vendors have to do it themselves. One of the best ways to avoid contamination is to adhere to the fundamental rules of all food operations. Make certain employees wash their hands each time they leave the kitchen and return. Keep counters and tables where food is prepared as sanitary as possible. Equal attention should be paid to keeping meats, fish and poultry at proper temperatures at all times. It’s important that food be carefully washed, cooked well and that vegetables, fruits and nuts all be washed before being served.

While nearly all of us enjoy eating, we must be mindful of the conditions while eating in restaurants, school cafeterias, firehouse fundraisers, church picnics - and the family kitchen, one of the most dangerous places to dine.

This summer, I became ill after eating a sandwich in a hospital cafeteria in Arlington, Va. I spent five hours in the hospital emergency room. It was the most expensive sandwich I’ve ever eaten. Pay close attention to where and what you eat. It can be a lifesaver.

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