The following tales were found on AskReddit . Please note that Thought Catalog has not verified the veracity of these claims, but rather collected these accounts and opinions to start a discussion.

I used to work at Wendy’s. The meat used in the chili, yeah that comes from the meat on the grill top that expires and dries up that’s put in to a warming drawer until you have enough for a batch of chili, which we first freeze and then thaw the next day. Also if the chili sitting in the warmer doesn’t sell fast enough we just added hot water to it to mix it up.

Worked at KFC for ~4 years. The BBQ sandwich is actually made from chicken too old and stale to give to the homeless shelters, so they soak it in BBQ sauce until it can be pulled and then they keep it on the heater for a month.

I worked at a theater, don’t get popcorn for the first showing- that’s all just last night’s popcorn put into giant garbage bags and then reheated in the warmers in the morning. Oh yeah and remember that sticky floor in the aisle of the theater? Well what do you think would happen if you had that at your house. YES THAT’S HOW YOU GET ANTS… and cockroaches, and everything else. Plus it’s in the dark most of the time. It’s like a bug buffet once the lights go out and the movie starts.

Panera- pasta; it’s all microwaved, including the mac and cheese. Smoothies/frozen drinks- nasty base crap that smells and it’s sticky. Cupcakes/coffee cakes- all come frozen. Best items are the real sandwich/salads. Real ingredients and usually fresh.

Taco Johns reporting for all you Midwesterners. I would steer clear of the beans, at least outside of peak hours, because they sit on the hot table for a long long time and when they dry out, just add water. Everything else is pretty solid though. Worked there a couple years back in 2007-2009 and still love going back to get my fix.

Former bartender… Don’t eat the olives on the bar. Just don’t.

Order what you want at Five Guys. The bacon sits out but its not like they’re trying to hide it. Everyone can see the bacon sitting there. Just know that at least 2 of the managers steal the pickle jars for meth making.

I used to work in a baseball park concession stand. The short answer is not to order anything, but if you absolutely have to buy something, don’t buy the hotdogs. Do not. Buy. The Hot Dogs. They made it out of the package okay, and might even have been edible after we finished grilling them – and then they went into the water. We kept three pans of water at the back of the grill that held the hot dogs. Any hot dogs left at the end of the day went back into the fridge, and came out again the next day. Me and the other cook put our feet down on throwing out the water and old hotdogs after two full days, but the management didn’t want to let us.

Milkshakes at jack in the box if you’re allergic to fruit. We do not clean the mixer very well, and it’s used for smoothies and milkshakes. Like, we’re TOLD to just half ass it. In the training video. It’s fucking ridiculous.

I used to work at McDonalds. If you order, especially chicken nuggets, just ask for them fresh. Otherwise they’ve been just sitting in their container in the heat. They have a timer, but 9/10 times when that timer goes off, people just reset the timer instead of making new ones. This could go on until all the nuggets are sold.

Former Little Caesars manager here. Some franchises are different, but I wouldn’t order any Crazy Bread, Jalapeño Bread, or Italian Bread. The shit they dress it with out the oven is NOT butter; it’s some nasty imitation that comes in a huge bottle and does not need to be refrigerated. Also, Hot-N-Readys and Chicken Wings have been known to sit in the warmer for hours at a time until sold.

I worked at Einstein’s bagel place, which is basically fast food. Don’t order anything with eggs, they aren’t real eggs and if business is slow they could have been sitting in a container for hours after they are microwaved.

McDonald’s. The egg white delight is just as unhealthy, if not more so, than the regular round eggs. The amount of butter (at least in my store) sprayed on the grill must up the calorie and fat count like crazy. I’ve heard a cook say, “Shouldn’t have come to McDonald’s if you’re trying to lose weight!” while soaking the inside of the egg white ring with layer upon layer of butter. Also, I’d recommend a regular round egg any day. The liquid eggs for the scrambled and egg whites are a chemical shitstorm. At least the round egg is the real deal.

I worked at taco bell a little bit ago and I warn everyone to stay away from both the beans, and the steak. The beans start out looking like cat food, and the directions are, “Add water and stir until you can’t see white anymore.” The steak was just the worst on dish duty. If it would sit too long it would become like hair gel. It was the worst.

If a sandwich shop asks if you want it toasted before they begin making it, it’s so they can use day-old stale bread. If you want it toasted, say “no” and wait until they make the sandwich then tell them that you changed your mind and want it toasted after all.

Used to be a Pizza Hut server. Stay away from the salads, lettuce to be specific. Food coloring.

Dairy Queen here. Everything is safe, and handled with care. Bad stuff is thrown away within the hour. But if we drop ice cream or fuck something up, it gets thrown in the freezer and used in a cake or something.

Worked at Arby’s 15 years ago. Once I saw what the ‘roast beef’ looked like before we cooked it, I never ate it again. It is a gelatinous mass with chunks of meat in it. Literally a paste with chunks of meat. The chicken is kosher though. Chicken bacon swiss is the tits.

KFC Australia here, don’t get the potato and gravy. It’s disgusting! At my store, the gravy was made from the drippings from the cookers. Not so bad I guess, kind of like traditional gravy, except those cookers were hardly ever cleaned and the drippings would sometimes be over a month old. You’d always wind up with rank pieces of chicken in the oily, grainy mixture and it was just gross. The potato is powdered and whilst we’re meant to make it in a Hobart mixer, we’d often just hand whisk it because we were pressed for time. So you’d be buying chalky tasting potato with month old oily chicken fat.

I work at subway, the turkey is 60% turkey, the rest being chicken and turkey flavoring. Also the seafood sensation has no crab in it, it’s just coloring to make it orange and flavoring to make it taste like crab. It’s actually fish.

I’ve never actually WORKED at a Taco Bell, but I know my ex-girlfriend once asked someone working there what they had that was non-dairy, and long story short, their cheese has no actual milk in it. It’s basically like a congealed mayonnaise (it’s egg-based).

Currently employed at Dunkin doughnuts and it’s sad but true all the doughnuts and baked goods there come to us frozen.

Burger King Fish Burgers. They use 2 week old oil.

I worked at Sonic. We had an icemaker in a separate room and would then put ice in a bucket and dump that in a container attached to the soda machine. When our store closed down, we had to empty the ice machine fully so it could be wheeled outside to be shipped off. All the ice looked fine until the last inch where everything was a deep brown.

Former Waffle House employee here. Do NOT eat the grits. Most of the time they sit there for hours on end. All we do is stir hot water in every couple of hours. Also keep in mind the grits at most Waffle Houses are kept by the burner’s eyes, which means a bunch of stuff falls in there and never get cleaned out.

Dairy Queen employee. Don’t eat the peanut butter, at least at my location there has been mold around the edge and the boss doesn’t give a shit so its up to me to change it every shift.

Do not order the tuna fish at subway. I worked there in high school and my boss showed me how to mix the freeze dried tuna and mayonnaise together with her bare hands on my first day.

Gas station slurpee’s. The amount of mold in those machines would crush your childhood to a pulp.

I’ve worked at 4 restaurants in my life and lemons and ice are by far the most disgusting things you can get.

My friend who worked at McDonalds told me a story of a disgruntled employee who rubbed one out into the soft serve machine… So don’t buy soft serve based products from a certain McDonalds in Australia.

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