the secret ingredient is...

August 8, 2008 9:22 PM

Servers spitting in food: fact or fiction?

I've never heard a first-person account of it, and having worked in (non-food) service industries I know that employees are much less nefarious than paranoid customers think we are. Food-spit usually seems like the scary camp-fire story of restaurant discussions. Still, I have to wonder about the pervasiveness of this idea.

Google results are contradictorily and suggest both that this often happens/is a total myth. I suspect it's on the rare side but does happen. How common is it really?

I am not interested in personal views on the goodness/badness of customers, spit, restaurants, servers, butter eaters, tipping, germs, rumors, whatever. Just wondering if anyone has been a witness to food-tampering behavior, and if so how much.

posted by Solon and Thanks to food & drink (54 comments total)

I've seen people tear up straw wrappers and place them on burgers given to other employees.
posted by mecran01 at 9:26 PM on August 8, 2008

I haven't seen the spitting so much, but an accidental drop of a burger patty on the floor wasn't uncommon. The worst I saw was a patty dropped into a dirty mop bucket.

It happens. This is why I'm always courteous, frequent the same establishments and tip like a mofo.
posted by sanka at 9:28 PM on August 8, 2008 [1 favorite]

I worked in a restaurant when I first came here, and it happened. Not a lot - restaurants are busy places and there's not as much opportunity as you would think for servers to communicate with people in the kitchen about what's going on with the customers. But it happens, and when it does it's almost always because the customers has crossed the line from gentle expressions of displeasure with the food or service to personal attacks, snobbery and basic out-of-control ranting and raving. In my experience, "food attacks" occurred once or twice a week. That was at a restaurant where a couple might spend $110 on food and liquor - not really high end, but not Applebee's, either.

Sanka is dead on: be courteous, be generous, build good relationships - pretty much the standard stuff you should be doing in all of life's arenas.
posted by Dee Xtrovert at 9:40 PM on August 8, 2008

During my stint in the kitchen I saw spitting and much worse-- like food purposefully coming into contact with body areas where food oughtn't be. This was a nice establishment, too. I don't think deliberate vandalism of food all pervasive, but it does happen. I'd be more concerned about the line cooks who step out for a cigarette, rub their hands through their sweaty hair and then hop right back on the line to cook your meal without washing up.

We hardly ever eat out any more.
posted by Heretic at 9:45 PM on August 8, 2008

I have personally spit and worse in meals that I've both cooked and served. Since you don't want this to derail into a pointless argument over the caliber of customers, I'll spare you the details of my motives, but rest assured that every single one of my victims had it coming.

Sanka's got it right. Never, never, never fuck with someone who's gonna be alone with something you're about to ingest.
posted by EatTheWeak at 9:51 PM on August 8, 2008 [2 favorites]

When I worked as a giant mouse at a kiddie pizza place in high school, our kitchen guys were known both to sabotage pizzas and to rescue pizzas from the floor or the garbage. This was especially true when they were at their busiest, as they couldn't afford a mistake and were feeling put upon by the birthday party hostesses who wanted their pizza right that moment. I saw spit, red pepper, salt, or dirty hands mixed into sauce or crust. I saw pizzas or ingredients picked up off the floor and put on trays. The worst was when a full cheese pizza slid off of the spatula and landed, face down, on the dirty floor. The guy scooped it up, flipped it back over, cut it, and put it right out.

It's not surprising when you consider the high level of stress and low level of respect these guys feel, and the inadequate mechanisms (either emotional or otherwise) they have to deal with it.
posted by AgentRocket at 10:01 PM on August 8, 2008

The waiter/blogger who was recently featured on the MeFi front page has said that it is most definitely NOT fiction.

I've worked in a couple of different restaurants and I've never personally seen it done, but I've overheard enough to verify that yes, it happens.
posted by amyms at 10:03 PM on August 8, 2008

Back in the olden days, when I was a waitron, I'd periodically deal with really mean customers. People who would denigrate, belittle, verbally abuse or shout at me. If I had a chance in the kitchen, I'd pick up the top of their hamburger bun, lick it, take it out and serve it with a big smile on my face. Alternately, I would lick their dill pickle spear.

A customer had to be truly awful to me specifically to deserve this treatment though. It is shocking how mean people can be to overwhelmed waitresses.

Absolutely do not be mean to the person who serves your food, particularly before you get the food.
posted by pluckysparrow at 10:10 PM on August 8, 2008

Yeesh, I love eating out. I'm wishing I hadn't read this thread.

I had a friend who worked in a sandwich shop for a while, and liked to tell everyone who would listen about the time he had a really nasty customer, whose sandwich was subsequently served with some bonus pubic hairs.

He did mention that it was the only time he messed with someone's food, though.

I used to work in a place with a food service branch. In several years time, the worst I ever saw was food being prepared without gloves. We didn't have the time to spite people by messing with their food. As far as food falling on the floor... When we were busy, we couldn't be bothered to pick it up. And if we weren't busy, we'd have even more ability to just do it over again.
posted by fogster at 10:13 PM on August 8, 2008

It's not fiction.

I have worked at an exclusive Raleigh country club, and I have worked at Waffle House. I have seen things happen at both venues. (The latter was just a LOT of hot sauce added to an obnoxious drunk's burger that he took to go after claiming something was wrong with his first one. And the cook did it, not me, just so you know.)

I would trust anything I would eat in a Waffle House way more than any other restaurant kitchen-at WH you can SEE them cooking your grub.
posted by konolia at 10:20 PM on August 8, 2008

Wow.

Well, as a counterpoint I worked at a KFC in highschool and never once messed with food or heard about anyone else messing with food. I suspect (and am certainly hoping) that there is some sever selection bias going on here. We're hearing from all the people who did stuff, or knew of stuff being done.

Of course I never had any horrible customers, either. And it's not like you'd have much of an opportunity for that stuff (either sabotage or bad customers) in a fast food setting anyway.
posted by delmoi at 10:37 PM on August 8, 2008

This is factual. I did my time in the food service trenches, and while I had a personal code of conduct that included never fucking with anyone's food I did see scumbags consuming their share of server DNA. Lots of people just don't realize that you should treat the people with access to your food with enough respect to keep them from dragging something you're going to put in your mouth across their taint. Power tripping and shitting on someone who makes $2.13/hr makes people do strange things, and servers tend to have long memories.
posted by knowles at 10:44 PM on August 8, 2008

***not for the sensitive****


NOT A WORD OF A LIE.... I have seen someone at a Mcfast food place put pubic hairs in a sandwich as he was tired of the customer complaining. Mind you this was 1984 (think Fast Times at RMH) but I do not lie. The customer returned the .79 product 3x and the worker snapped. He was fired for other indiscretions at a future date. Not saying the customer was wrong, just saying at 16 years old and 2.65/hour, don't expect much. Please be careful where and who provides the dinner for your family.

CDM

...yes this was true, not second hand. I saw him do it but did not realize what he did until the grill order went up.....
posted by Country Dick Montana at 10:44 PM on August 8, 2008

Mmmm, yeah. In my decade working in both high and low-end restaurants I've seen it a few times. In my experience it depended on the attitude of the other workers in the establishment. In the high-end steakhouse NOTHING was thrown away; if it hit the floor pick it up and pour some more melted butter on it. The Mayor or the Secretary of Education at table 2? Ptooey. In the casual dining place it was pretty rare for a server to care enough to risk the bad karma with the big exception being the (visibly tattooed) Klan family that was waited on by the girl in an interracial marriage. I will speak no more of her displeasure.
That said, almost every professional server believes in some form of karma and doesn't risk cosmic revenge for a small slight. I'm sure everyone involved in any food sabotage I've ever seen went on to live a perfectly healthy and happy life anyway.
posted by Mamapotomus at 10:59 PM on August 8, 2008

I've heard of too many first-person accounts to doubt it happens: but I'm also on delmoi's side: I cooked in a rural family restaurant, pretty low-class place and I never would have done this and never saw it done, and I'd have to think I saw near about the nadir of customer behavior there.

But let's face it: restaurant work is frequently brutal, low-paying toil that attracts a motley array of social malcontents, so the fact that this happens isn't much of a surprise. I try not to think about it.

Almost all the stories are in response to pretty atrocious customer behavior, so barring the random psycho, which you can't do anything about besides locking yourself in your house in any event, it's a pretty preventable danger.

In the end, horrible food possibilities are something you just can't escape, so you just have to live with the gross reality (and try not to dwell on it too much)
posted by nanojath at 11:05 PM on August 8, 2008

My brother used to date a chef who was head of a kitchen at some fancy hotel. If we ever ate out, if her food wasn't PERFECT and I mean PERFECT she would send it back - I asked her about the chances of it being "messed with" and she said "in my kitchen, I'd rather have the chance to fix a mistake than have someone go away without complaining but tell all their friends they didn't like the food".

She had been in restaurant business for 15 years or so and she was never scared of being demanding. She was never rude, but if she asked for that steak medium rare and it came out medium, its going back.

One anecdotal data point for you :)
posted by Admira at 11:20 PM on August 8, 2008

When I was (a bit) younger I worked in food service in a resort hotel, steakhouses, an exclusive country club, and sandwich shops etc., in the kitchen, bussing tables, waiting tables, tending the salad bar, and so on.

For whatever its worth, I cannot recall even one instance of food being maliciously adulterated in any way by me or anyone else.
posted by longsleeves at 11:41 PM on August 8, 2008

When I worked in food service, I never witnessed or heard about co-workers tampering with food in any way. My mother, however, has worked in two restaurants where the owners habitually spit in the food of unpleasant customers (incidentally, both Greek restaurants).
posted by arianell at 11:42 PM on August 8, 2008

It's been a long time since I worked in a restaurant, but in my four+ years as a waiter, cook, etc, I never once saw any of my fellow employees spit in anyone's food, or do anything other than pick up the plates and serve them.
posted by davidmsc at 1:12 AM on August 9, 2008

I remember reading back in the day that Leona Helmsley was so hated by those who worked for her that when she ordered a jug of water in one of her hotels all the kitchen staff - from the head chef to the dishwasher - dipped their penises in it before it was taken up to her suite.
posted by essexjan at 1:16 AM on August 9, 2008

Spit gets in your food.

As a server in the nineties, I saw much worse. Steaks dropped on the floor on purpose, rubbed into the nasty floor, and then servied to an ex-girlfriend's new guy... clam chowder, with bonus snot ball.... salads with boogars..... and once, just once, I saw a girl put her hand down her pants, pull back a darkened wet finger, wipe it on a piece of grilled fish, and mumble to herself, "you want my p#@!y, you got it."

Nasty, nasty stuff. I don't EVER complain in a resturant.
posted by bradth27 at 1:40 AM on August 9, 2008 [1 favorite]

good lord bradth27. i am never eating out again.
posted by osloheart at 2:28 AM on August 9, 2008 [2 favorites]

I'm really surprised at the apparent prevalence of this spitting nonsense. I have never once seen anyone purposely ruin a meal. What a great way to get yourself fired.

I'd be more worried about the corners cut on the quality of your meal's produce, and meat. Or whether you actually got 12oz in that steak - if you cut them to 10.8 you get a whole extra steak for every ten you cut! Maybe the odd forgotten hand wash between handling an allergen and other foods. God, if I had any food allergies, I would be pretty paranoid. Oh, and yes, we dip our fingers in and taste your food. But our hands are freshly cleaned 99% of the time.

You might also be surprised as to how long something has been sitting in open air in the fridge, or the fact that that delicious garlic butter is nothing more than the cheapest margarine with garlic flakes.

Cooks are not bad people. Bad owners and management are another story, and miserable employees can be sloppy.

This doesn't keep us from talking shit about a bad customer, or their service being exxxtra slow.

Happy dining!
posted by sunshinesky at 4:05 AM on August 9, 2008

Things I've seen working at McD's as a teen:

Dropped burger patties, McNuggets, buns, etc. regularly picked up off floor. Dead fly in hotcake batter (it was served and never returned). Order for "no pickles" results in meat patty being dunked in pickle juice (same for onions). Bloody egg used to cook McMuffins. Spit in the Big Mac.
Fatty Quarter Pounder meat being served on a McLean sandwich (they looked identical when frozen).

Nasty stuff done by just a few kids on the team, but I suppose you couldn't expect much from 16 year olds who made $3.85 an hour.
posted by DefendBrooklyn at 5:08 AM on August 9, 2008

It happened a few times when I was waiting tables, but it was rare. A customer had to be a real asshole for it to happen though, and it had to be done quickly or in the company of people who didn't care, as the kitchen of a restaurant is usually busy and crowded. Much more common was to see food dropped and then put back on the plate. Even some managers were ok with this.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 5:32 AM on August 9, 2008

Nthing what other posters say: my experience is that you can reduce your risk substantially by not being a jerk. In my time as a server the only incident of food tampering I witnessed was in response to a customer who was being a complete asshole.

Bad owners and management are another story, and miserable employees can be sloppy.

Miserable employees are also less likely to care if they get fired for food tampering. I'd say you can reduce your risk even further by staying away from places with obviously bad management - yelling at employees in front of customers, not keeping the shifts sufficiently staffed, etc.
posted by AV at 5:44 AM on August 9, 2008

I worked for McDonalds for 5 years, and never saw or heard of it once. Ever. Worst I ever saw was that orders for extra pickles for some reason always meant cramming as many pickles on there as possible.

For the person who mentioned gloves and their lack of use- when I was in class getting certified on Food Service Sanitation, they specifically mentioned glove use as a "hot spot". They said there were studies that showed, all other things being equal, that glove use alone didn't change anything and that it actually often led to worse sanitation. That people assumed that because they were wearing gloves, they were clean. So they'd never wash their hands and never change their gloves, ending up with gloves that were far dirtier than ones hands would ever get. Worse, in restaurants with classically cheap owners, people would be encouraged NOT to change gloves at a regular interval because "those things cost money". It turned into a game theory thing- instead of focusing on cleanliness, glove requirements turned into focusing on whether people were seen wearing them. The upshot is that gloves are no guarantee of cleanliness, and that simply maintaining a good handwashing policy is easier, cheaper and cleaner.
posted by gjc at 6:14 AM on August 9, 2008

I don't know if it qualifies as tampering, per se, but when I worked in a coffee shop in the early nineties and we had to deal with people shrieking at us to make drinks fat free, it wasn't unheard of for the employees to substitute half-and-half for the nonfat milk.

We tended to reserve this for the screaming tanorexic woman who called us "idiots."
posted by corey flood at 6:43 AM on August 9, 2008

I've worked at at least 6 Canadian McDonald's over a 6 year period due to moving around and regional, 'employee sharing' when required, and never saw, or would believe anything of the sort such as spitting. Anything that got dropped on the floor got tossed immediately into the waste bins for the purpose, which including food that had sat too long. Employees at fast-food places are expendable. If management catches someone doing something like spitting in food, or violating other rules, they're immediately fired.

That said, at least at McDonald's (which was about 15 years ago) quality has gone down due to efforts to reduce cost. Instead of cooking fresh like they used to, they implemented heated holding bins, with rules about how long the burgers, nuggets, etc should be kept in there. And since management gets annoyed when food (money) gets wasted, employees often keep food in the holding bins longer than they should. That's more of a concern, as well as employees not washing (including hands) or sanitizing things as often as they should.
posted by hungrysquirrels at 7:06 AM on August 9, 2008

An additional note: usually cooks are separated from the customers, it's the people manning the cash, or waitresses, who deal with them, thus they're ignorant of whether the customers are nice or jerks. So, why do something like spit?
posted by hungrysquirrels at 7:15 AM on August 9, 2008

When I worked at McDonalds, we used to kill flies with the same spatulas that were used to flip the burgers.

After all, the flies were irritating and who's going to notice a little fly juice on their burger?
posted by jayder at 7:17 AM on August 9, 2008

I never saw anyone spit in food when I worked at McDonalds.

But my sister said that at least one employee of a very good Mexican restaurant where she worked would put spit in the food of people who pissed him off.
posted by jayder at 7:22 AM on August 9, 2008

usually cooks are separated from the customers .... So, why do something like spit?

I think it's often servers who are putting spit in already-prepared food.
posted by jayder at 7:24 AM on August 9, 2008

Point of order: Please do not comment if all you have to say is "I have never once seen anyone..." That is irrelevant to the poster's question. Obviously there are many, many occasions on which no one spits in the food; the question is whether it happens. If someone asks "Do dogs ever bite?" your saying "My dog does not bite" is not helpful.
posted by languagehat at 7:36 AM on August 9, 2008

languagehat: Please do not comment if all you have to say is "I have never once seen anyone..."

From the original poster: wondering if anyone has been a witness to food-tampering behavior, and if so how much

Comments that we have worked in restaurants and never seen food-tampering are completely relevant.
posted by hungrysquirrels at 8:02 AM on August 9, 2008 [8 favorites]

To refine, is the original poster looking for a complete list of where not to eat? Or whether all this stuff about food-tampering is verifiable, or myth. There has been some posts on both sides of the issue.

/compared with the chemicals in the food you eat, human spit isn't that bad, and not trying to turn this into a flame war
posted by hungrysquirrels at 8:16 AM on August 9, 2008

Richard Wright's semi-autobiographical Black Boy has a scene in which he describes witnessing a food spitting scene. Mind you, this was the 1920s, but hey, obnoxious customers pervade history.
posted by spamguy at 8:35 AM on August 9, 2008

usually cooks are separated from the customers .... So, why do something like spit?

Or because the customer wanders in five minutes before close, when the restaurant has been dead, meditates over the menu and finally decides to order (with a bunch of special requests, of course), thus forcing the cooks to stay longer and reclean their equipment. (And these people usually tip for shit, too, and the waitress is stuck there until he leaves.)

Or because of multiple send-backs for needlessly picky demands - or perceived cheapness - the person who eats most of their food then sends it back because something was wrong.

I have worked in restaurant hotels, room service, a Subway, a cafe bar, and multiple restaurants and I echo most other commenters - spitting, never seen it. Lax cleanliness standards or not preparing the food in the normal way? Yeah. Some places are worse than others.

One rather upscale restaurant I worked at had a draconian attendance policy - if the waitress (the owners never hired waiters, I don't know why) got sick, suffered a loss in the family, was deep in rush-hour traffic, etc., if she couldn't make her shift, she was fired. No questions asked. So, we all worked when we were sick as dogs. One waitress stepped outside several times over the course of the night to vomit - the rest of us finally convinced the owner to let her go home, we would take over her work. I had a series of disgusting sinus infections but never got a day off. And this weekend I'm getting sick, but I'm still working at the restaurant, because I couldn't find anyone to cover my shift.
posted by queseyo at 9:18 AM on August 9, 2008

sometimes the customer doesn't have to be an asshole. sometimes they just have to be a cop. or a relative of a cop.

"Employees maintained 'special servings' of food reserved for ... officers," the lawsuit said. "The 'special servings' had been urinated in or spit in by KFC/Taco Bell employees. In fact, defendant's employees maintained a particular serving pan for use in creating 'special servings' of food plus employee urine."
posted by rmd1023 at 9:21 AM on August 9, 2008

Worked in three restaurants, but never saw any spitting.

I did see a waiter popping a zit on his shaved head right before he carried food out to a customer.

Also, wait staff generally never, ever washed their hands.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 9:31 AM on August 9, 2008

Wow. So I guess that firmly answers my question. Be careful what you wish for, eh? Thanks, languagehat, for keeping an eye on the thread - I did find the posts about it "never happening" to be interesting since they're a counterpoint to a question that's just screams confirmation bias.

Thanks, all - I do feel better at least to know that this behavior seems largely reserved for assholes. And I do agree with the sentiment that you're bound to eat much worse in life anyway, this question was more about morbid curiosity than anything.
posted by Solon and Thanks at 9:43 AM on August 9, 2008

Followup answer: Requesting veggie/vegan food gets you veggie/vegan food. Requesting veggie/vegan food and being an asshole about it gets you meat/meat juice in your meal.

Re: usually cooks are separated from the customers

Cooks and servers have a special relationship of mutual respect, usually coming from hanging/partying/buying or selling drugs. A server requesting any "special treatment" will pretty much always get it.

I don't mean to be so bleak, but if you're concerned about eating spit or worse then you should show the proper respect to the people who have the opportunity to spit on your food.
posted by knowles at 9:50 AM on August 9, 2008

In the quaint olden days when I was at a teen worker at burger place and then a teen-passing for legal working at genuine alcohol-serving restaurants with better pay, this did not happen at all, ever. In fact, jokes about it where rare. People had sex in the walk-in freezer (quickly) but not on the food. People smoked dope before their shifts and on breaks(which I think improved their focus). People made unwholesome (and sometimes accurate and witty) remarks about customers. People had special codes to alert the entire staff when attractive customers arrived (hot males, hot females, hot gay males, but nothing for comely women presumed to be lesbians). Many adolescent things went on. No one messed with food. A couple of people were fired for ill-conceived attempts to steal.

My unproveable opinion is that it has always happened (it happens in the mini-series of "Roots," can't recall if it's in the book) and that in the last decade or so these childish attempts at revenge are discussed so frequently and openly that people who wouldn't have though to or dared to go right ahead.

That said, I fail to understand why it's funny or okay. Like most people with a job, I have opportunities to do things badly and cause trouble for people or get a cheap thrill and yet, in my case and many others, no one would think it was funny or okay. If OR nurses routinely tossed a sponge in someone, because "that patient is a dick" or insurance agents tacked $200 onto a quote because "she wouldn't go out with me" or whatever, people would think badly or them, possibly pursue legal action.

The whole "show proper respect to people who have the opportunity to spit in your food" thing just sticks in my craw like so much septic phlegm from an unbalanced dish-washer's gob.

Why not show "proper respect" to people who can freeze your bank account with a "suspicious activity" flag? People who have an inkling to call your license plate in with a drunk driving report ("well, I don't know really, he was going kind of slow most of the time, I'm not saying for sure, but he had his brights on and kept drifting almost over the line... it was just, he seemed, I'm not saying for sure it was a drunk driver, I was just scared, being on the road with him,...)? People who are dating your Slavic Language prof, the one you were hoping for a recommendation from? People like that are all around, and they could do things that cause trouble for you out of pure spite, but because they are grown-ups, they typically don't.

Why not show proper respect when you are out and about, and why not take the high road when people are not up to your standards?
posted by Lesser Shrew at 10:44 AM on August 9, 2008 [7 favorites]

It happens, I'm sure. So just play it safe.

As soon as someone at my table complains about something, I'm done ordering. I don't want anything else on the menu.
posted by Zambrano at 10:53 AM on August 9, 2008 [1 favorite]

I certainly agree that you should take the high road whenever humanly possible.

That being said, when you get older and have the misfortune of being in a nursing home or an assisted living, be nice to the CNAs.

Agreeing with all who said this only went for *particularly* nasty patients. I can honestly say that if it weren't for one occasion when I spit into a womans ice water, I would have strangled her. Trust me, in that case, I took the high road.
posted by Grlnxtdr at 11:15 AM on August 9, 2008

Do you have to really try and be blatant at pissing the servers off, or can this be provoked by a customer who acts in an inconvenient manner? Stuff like not immediately understanding the restaurant's set menu rules, or sitting in a table that requires a lot of walking on the part of the server, or changing the drink ordered after it was written down (i.e. things you don't realize are annoying until you serve time in customer service). Do those things count as 'pissing someone off'?

I'm just combining this thread with the previous 'how do customers piss you off' threads. You have to, like, yell at someone before they spit in your hamburger, right?
posted by sleslie at 11:22 AM on August 9, 2008

Do you have to really try and be blatant at pissing the servers off...

Everybody's different, and every restaurant is different. It could happen for any reason, or no reason at all. I worked in kitchens on and off for years, and I've seen it happen because an asshole customer "had it coming," and I've seen it happen because that particular staff member was just an antisocial fuck who didn't care about anything.

The good news is (at least from my experience), food-spitting is definitely the exception rather than the rule. In most places with a halfway decent reputation, you'd definitely be considered a fuckup for doing anything to people's food for anything but the most blatant assholery.

The bad news is, as a diner there's not much that can be done to avoid it in some cases. As a low-skill, low-wage job, food service is full of people who have never had to maintain a track record of being decent, sane, or terribly brilliant. But really, it's pretty rare statistically. The "It's totally busy, the steak fell on the floor, I'm using it anyway" scenario is much more common than spitting or intentional tampering.
posted by Rykey at 11:47 AM on August 9, 2008

And oh yeah, nthing the notion that if you are a member of a group the cooks don't like (white, black, cop, teacher) your odds of tampering are higher. But again, how could you know who your particular cook doesn't like?
posted by Rykey at 11:53 AM on August 9, 2008

I have never once seen food spit on.

I have seen, in the course of working in three different food service jobs:

—Smaller portions for assholes
—Dave's Insanity added
—Dropped food served (if you ever hear people counting out three long seconds, you should probably eat somewhere else)
—Meat served to vegetarians
—Ham rubbed on balls
—Pizza farted on
—Floor sweepings served as taco salad filling

That said, I'm usually more worried about stuff stored under chicken in the walk-in.
posted by klangklangston at 5:29 PM on August 9, 2008

Not nice, but search for 'Margaret Thatcher' on this page. I was going to investigate further but didn't have the stomach for the google search.
posted by jonathanbell at 4:16 AM on August 10, 2008

At movie theaters, you are generally pretty safe: the candy is pre-packaged, the popcorn is made and served right in front of you. However, one perpetually angry employee with a chip on his shoulder would lick the ends of the (unwrapped) straws before putting them in the dispenser.

Also, I accidentally dropped someone's change into the popcorn bin once while handing it back to them. They definitely noticed but we were only halfway through a very busy shift so I just gave them back a dollar.
posted by amicamentis at 8:11 AM on August 10, 2008

When I worked at Wendy's, the process for applying mustard was to write a large "W" on the cheese slice (thus ensuring mustard in every bite).

The worst we ever did was to instead write "Fuck You" in mustard.
posted by Twicketface at 10:15 AM on August 11, 2008

I worked in a restaurant for a little under a year and I never did anything to anyone's food. I never saw anyone do anything to anyone's food or even heard about it. Although- once you leave, be aware that some servers will eat the remaining food off of your plate before throwing it away. I saw that happen several times.
posted by thebrokenmuse at 4:13 AM on August 14, 2008

There's been some discussion about how food service employees are obligated by human decency to protect the integrity of the food they handle. I agree, for the most part, but weve got to understand that is just not how it works in some restaurants/shops.

In the last food service job I had, the environment could be very degrading and hellish. We'd be belittled by the nouveau riche customers and completely ass-dicked by management daily. It was a chore to walk in that place, let alone work there.

You can't expect people who are constantly abused by their customers and their managers to see clearly on the issue of Total Food Perfection. Some part of their mind starts realizing that this environment and the people in it is causing them pain (and all this for terrible pay and no respect), and they get apathetic at best, and vengeful at worst. I saw people I respected a lot otherwise, do some pretty questionable things to someone's food. Not to say this is how it is in all food service environments, but most people I know who have been in food service have stories like these and far worse, about workplaces that made you hate your own life. (And it's just a cute fiction to say that everyone can walk out of a job they hate.)

Look, people in these situations can be suckers for a little kindness, so just be sincerely nice to them, and sometimes they will go way out of their way for you. Just out of gratitude that you exist.
posted by Coatlicue at 4:52 PM on August 15, 2008 [1 favorite]