Odds are, you’ve eaten fast food at sometime in your life. This morning maybe? Last night? Thinking you might drop by the drive thru this weekend? Take a listen to what some former and current fast food employees are saying about what you’re eating…

Chicken

Layers of margarine coat the grilled chicken to keep it from sticking on the grill – and give it that “juicy” feeling.

Nuggets left on counter tops so long they melt into something you could drink.

Hot water buckets to thaw chicken breasts that bathe in it all day.

Hamburger

What doesn’t pass the standard for serving in a patty gets boiled and tossed into chili.

The two second rule gets used as dropped meat is thrown back on the grill to burn away the floor cooties.

Condiments

Containers are rarely, if ever, cleaned. New ketchup poured over the old over and over and over again.

Ice Machines

Mold growth as this equipment is the last in priority to clean.

And if these stories weren’t off-putting enough, there’s always the tales of cockroach races on the grill to get your stomach churning.

Reps from the chains mentioned in the Reddit piece released statements denying the health hazard claims.

It is true that most of this is anecdotal and hard to verify (unless you have video that is), but I’ll attest to having worked at a high end restaurant once that was so infested with cockroaches we chose the dressing of the day based on the one that didn’t have baby bugs floating face up in it. Yeah, I know, gross. I quit that gig.

On the bright side, I also worked for a place that wouldn’t pay you if you skimped on your side work. That place was spotless.

Guess it all depends.

That’s why, as hard as it is to hear stories like this, odds are, I’ll still eat fast food sometime soon. It’s called cognitive dissonance. How bout you?