WERE you thinking about fast food for dinner tonight?

You might think again after reading confessions from fast food workers who wouldn't dare to eat the food they serve up to customers every day.

A recent Reddit thread asked "what item on the menu would you absolutely not eat and why?" The responses range from the obvious (fried food is full of calories) to the downright disgusting (looking at you, festering crab meat).

HUNGRY JACK'S

"I would never order the fish burger or the vegie burger. Not many people ordered them so if you did there was a good chance that you got a patty that had been sitting there for well over an hour. The patties took quite a while to deep fry so they quite often had one ready to go in the warmer, just in case.

"Whilst working there though, I used to love eating them when I could make one fresh for myself.

"I should also add that there was always a massive tub of tartare sauce for the fish burgers but not people ordering them. Did you know tartare sauce goes kinda translucent and yellowish after a while?" - reddit user Bangersss

McDONALD'S

"Filet o Fishes are the biggest scam, you get the same bun as a cheeseburger, tiny amount of dirt cheap sauce, cheap deep fried fish square and you don't even get a full slice of cheese." - reddit user Mortaris

"Big Macs are an even bigger rip off. Same amount of meat as a double cheeseburger, one less slice of cheese than a double cheeseburger. And three times as expensive as a double cheeseburger. And for what? A little lettuce, different sauce and a middle bun? Just ask for a double cheeseburger made like a Mac." - reddit user iBuzzKill

"There were two things I would not be caught dead with: 1. Filet-o-fish, on the box of frozen patties the ingredients say "pollock and/or other fish" I have no idea what "other fish" could be. 2. Any of the juices. On a particularly slow evening i decided to clean the nozzles. They were absolutely covered with mold. Oh and we only got the machine about 6 months before. As far as I know, the one previous was NEVER cleaned." - reddit user LodoreAdove

BUFFETS

"I work at a Mexican restaurant that has a happy hour that includes a completely free "nacho bar." It has pans of queso, ground beef, refried beans, salsa, and chips. Sounds like a dream come true, and it would be, but I will never ever eat off that thing. This isn't because of anything the restaurant does. The food quality is excellent and fresh and the bar is kept clean, but I have seen customers put their fingers in it, cough all over it, I've even seen a grown lady EATING BEEF RIGHT OFF THE LADLE. I'm sure this goes for most places with self-serve buffets, but this experience has just scarred me from anything like that." - reddit user brinyfaceho

QUESTIONABLE SAUCES

"I worked at the Old Spaghetti Factory. Our "special" is a spicy pasta dish called the Vesuvius. The sauce is made by mashing together the unused chicken, pork, and beef from the previous 6-7 days. And the vesuvius sauce is allowed to remain for up to a week without being thrown out. So theoretically, you could be eating a pasta dish with 14-day-old meat. But hey, at least you get free ice cream." - reddit user koma0029

SUBWAY

"Cold cut combo: literally smells like ass out of the package. Tuna: way too much f***in mayo. More like cream of tuna soup. Meatballs: if its a slow restaurant, I guarantee those are from yesterday. Subway." - reddit user john92t

"Only thing that really disgusted me was the crab meat. It was made by taking imitation crab meat and mixing it in with a giant tub of mayo. When making the sandwich the thing would come out slathered in mayo and then the few people that did order it would ask for more mayo to put on top of it. People would also do this with the tuna sub. Might as well just have ordered a mayonnaise sandwich." - reddit user statisticalhornist

UNEXPECTED FAT

"I used to work in a restaurant where we had a lunch special of chowder in a bread bowl and a salad. Now, the chowder has so much fat in it that it is a solid at room temp. Talking about 1,500 calories for the bowl. But everyday women would ask for 'light dressing'. Lady, the dressing is not the problem with your meal." - reddit user Khokhmah

But for every negative piece of advice, there's a fast food worker who stands up for their employer. Here's one from Macca's.

McDONALD'S

"I worked at McDonald's and found a bee in a salad I was making. It was unsure whether the bug was in one of the bags of ingredients but for safety we threw out all bags of ingredients that were used for the salad because we didn't know which one it came from. Oh and we threw out the other salads that was made from the safe stuff even though there wasn't anything in them." - reddit user Train0Thought

Got a fast food nightmare to share? Comment below or continue the conversation on Twitter @newscomauHQ

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