Restaurants reusing food?
November 21st 2009 04:41
Have you ever gone to a mexican restaurant and wondered why there was a straw wrapper mixed in with the chips? Or why there were soggy pieces of chips in the salsa you haven't eaten from yet? Well it turns out that quite a few places don't like to see their food go to waste and have no problem pouring that left over salsa or chips back into the container.
From what I have seen and heard it seems that mexican restaurants are the ones that do this the most often. But don't think you are safe because your eating at a fancy and expensive restaurant. One waitress told me that left over bread was often reused at the nice place she worked.
It also seems that undercover TV shows are in no short supply of videos showing that happening with other food items as well. I watched one where the owner took uneaten sandwich halves off of plates and rewrapped and sold them.
Once when I ordered something from a fast food place, I opened the item and after taking it somewhat apart I realized they gave me the wrong thing. I brought it back up and showed them what was wrong. The person behind the counter then proceeded to rewrap it and put it back up under the light ready to be resold, even though she had seen me put my hands all over the food. I did tell the manager and made them throw it away. Who knows if they took it back out of the trash after I left though.
The thought of it is pretty disgusting but it is also seems like it could be dangerous. I wonder what the odds are of catching something from the person that had previously been eating your food? Imagine someone with a terrible cough who has a chip in his hand. He starts coughing and covers his mouth with his chip hand, then dunks it into the salsa. The salsa is then returned to the container and served to multiple other people.
Someone once told me that they actually pour the remaining salsa over the chips to discourage the restaurant from reusing it. Short of us all doing something similar to any food we leave behind on our plate is there any way to stop this? I see it only getting worse in this economy as fewer people can afford to eat out. I have definitely become more cautious where I eat, especially since I found out that my favorite restaurant (where I ate at least once or twice a week) does reuse food. It's too bad, I really loved their chips.
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