No attempt made to wash hands!

[Zacha341]

What's with these chain pizza places where the staff is at once answering phones, handling cash, credit cards, then turning right around from you and stirring sauces, flipping dough and making pizzas. Argghh! Why is the same person doing everything?

I had to request a refund and walk out of the Dominos on Woodward [[WSU area) that shares the Sunoco gas station... I guess your asking for it when you go to a "chain" pizza place, but "yeck" this is just in-your-face-NASTY normal procedure as all just blatant and observable. Perhaps the new fast food aesthetic is that high oven temps burn away grit, grim and germs?

I've notices some fast food pizza places will go from money exchange activities to the "anti-bacterial" pump then on to fixing food.

Still this particular Dominos place did absolutely NOTHING... there was no attempt made to wash or sanitize hands. I'm making a call to the corporate offices Monday. I will probably get some free coupons which I really don't want...

[East Detroit]

When I worked at Little Caesars as a kid, the cashier/order takers and the pizza handlers were totally separate people.

I thought this thread was going to be about all the people who dont wash their hands after going to the bathroom [[most of them).

[texorama]

I've often wondered about this. If you look at restaurant inspections, there are some fairly arcane violations places get nailed for [["mop not hung"). Yet the cashier/cook phenomenon is all over the place. I always notice it at Blimpyburger in Ann Arbor, where you've got the counterman or woman picking up all kinds of things, taking bills from people, making change.

[CountrySquire]

Hmmm! Maybe if these simple health codes were to be enforced then it could mean a few extra jobs.

[Trumpeteer]

Hmmm! Maybe if these simple health codes were to be enforced then it could mean a few extra jobs.

You'd have to have an inspector in EVERY foodservice operation to fully enforce a simple handwashing rule. That can't happen so it's up to the individual facility to enforce. Best solution is to simply refuse food you've seen barehanded by an employee.

[313WX]

I've often wondered about this. If you look at restaurant inspections, there are some fairly arcane violations places get nailed for [["mop not hung"). Yet the cashier/cook phenomenon is all over the place. I always notice it at Blimpyburger in Ann Arbor, where you've got the counterman or woman picking up all kinds of things, taking bills from people, making change.

The reason is most likely economic rather than health-related.

In this economy, no one can afford to hire cooks AND cashiers when that person[[s) can do both. Instead, they just require everyone to wear gloves. Their managers probably also think washing their hands every 5 seconds is wasting valuable dollars which are hard to come by [[after all, time is money).

Welcome to the new America!

[313WX]

Best solution is to simply refuse food you've seen barehanded by an employee.

It's really no skin off their backs. They'll just give that item to someone else who wasn't aware that it was prepared with bare hands.

[Bobl]

Which poses the question:

Why would ANYONE help themselves to peanuts or popcorn left at a drinking establishment or restaurant bar, after numerous patrons have visited the washroom and returned to the bar?

[mauser]

The reason is most likely economic rather than health-related.

In this economy, no one can afford to hire cooks AND cashiers when that person[[s) can do both. Instead, they just require everyone to wear gloves. Their managers probably also think washing their hands every 5 seconds is wasting valuable dollars which are hard to come by [[after all, time is money).

Welcome to the new America!

wear gloves ? that doesnt satisfy health department food handling laws. are you going to change to a new pair of gloves three times during each transaction ?

[buzzman0077]

The health and infection risk is so tiny from phones and cash trasmitted by hand to food, that you would have to be severely immunocomprimised or very unlucky to catch anything. We as a society have become excessively paranoid about infectious disease. All this paranoia and fear is huge buisiness for companies that make hand lotions, but turely adds very little to disease prevention in these types of situations.

[detroitjim]

As the collective IQ of this area has gone down ,we can only expect that the health standards will be ignored. Back in the day if you worked in a restaurant it was necessary to get a food handlers card from the Detroit Health Department. You had to take a test about safe practices[[a six year old could pass it). After successfully passing the test you paid a small fee and you received the card.
When they had that requirement , it provided a small income for the department and as the law goes made you personally liable for any violations. Along with a lot of the other ordinances , enforcement fell by the wayside during the Coleman years. Don't know if that ord. is still on the books or not.

[princealbert]

Good rule of thumb: Don't buy food from a restaurant in the gas station.

[Trumpeteer]

It's really no skin off their backs. They'll just give that item to someone else who wasn't aware that it was prepared with bare hands.

If you refuse the food they throw it away in front of you

[MCP-001]

I was at a Subway the other day and noticed the same thing [[food prep & handling money by the same person), but a little different from the Domino's story above.

They had a line of employees follow each customer from the beginning of the line to the end. They would take your order, prepare it, bag it, collect your money, wash their hands, and then start the process all over again.

So I guess that it depends on where you eat if they give a damn about infecting the next customer.

[Zacha341]

LOL! I know, I thought about that, but it seemed clean initially, and I've seen the same thing occur when they [[Domino's Pizza) were further down on Woodward in their own store front... but the guy did a 2 second hand smear of that anti-bacterial gel.... In any event I am not interested n round three of this junk food....

Good rule of thumb: Don't buy food from a restaurant in the gas station.

[Zacha341]

I make it a rule to not eat anything from a common bowl in a public place. Like those little fried strips you get with your soup at some Chinese restaurants, I don't eat them. How can one determine if the remains from a previous meal are not recycled... but I guess you thought enough about all of this you would not eat out at all! Hah!

Which poses the question:

Why would ANYONE help themselves to peanuts or popcorn left at a drinking establishment or restaurant bar, after numerous patrons have visited the washroom and returned to the bar?

[Zacha341]

Yeah, they say mobile phones are very germ laden. I clean mine with a germicide every other week or so when I think about it... and just use my land phone when at home, so I only use the mobile when out as it is turning out.......

The health and infection risk is so tiny from phones and cash trasmitted by hand to food, that you would have to be severely immunocomprimised or very unlucky to catch anything. We as a society have become excessively paranoid about infectious disease. All this paranoia and fear is huge buisiness for companies that make hand lotions, but turely adds very little to disease prevention in these types of situations.

[Ray1936]

Folks, if you saw where half of the food you eat has been and been handled, you'd never eat again. I don't let it bother me. If I catch the crud, so be it.

[Jimaz]

A nurse once described to me the mechanics of cross-contamination via keyboards on devices used by multiple people in hospitals. It's a serious problem with the recent advent of the MRSA bacterium.

There are thin membrane keyboard covers that prevent debris from entering keyboards. They work great to protect the keyboard but people neglect to clean the membranes regularly despite the fact that they're very easy to clean.

There's a pizza shop near me that has an absolutely filthy keyboard membrane on their cash register. I keep telling them about it but they never wash it. It's as if they have some cognitive blind spot about it.

They really do make a mean pizza though.

Watch out for library keyboards too.

[Corn.Bot]

Folks, if you saw where half of the food you eat has been and been handled, you'd never eat again. I don't let it bother me. If I catch the crud, so be it.

I'm with you... IMO, if the bug doesn't kill you, it will give you future immunity. On the other hand, I will say I do my best to not touch doorknobs and stair-rails anywhere, anymore, so I guess I'm becoming a germaphobe, after all.

I work in a publc health dept which gives me the chance to hear both sides of a restaurant complaint. On the consumer side, few can be convinced that what made them sick was not the restaurant meal they ate 45 minutes prior to puking [[far more likely it was something they encountered 12-36 hrs before). On the restaurant side, it is often a losing battle to convince a worker the gloves are not meant as solely his/her personal protection, but to keep his/her germs off the product. And no matter what, they are not 'magic' gloves that don't transfer germs from item to item. Really, they're not.

A good thing about registering a restaurant complaint with the health dept is that the inspectors will conduct an unannounced visit to the facility no matter how far-fetched the consumer's claim. The visit is done in addition to the usual required periodic inspections, which are generally scheduled ahead of time and before which a restaurant can prepare itself and get all its workers into best-practices form. The surprise inspection can be a real... hands-on... lesson for the PIC and staff, sometimes.

Our county puts restaurant inspections online, which can make for insightful reading... although it occasionally quenches any desire to eat out, anywhere.

[rb336]

Good rule of thumb: Don't buy food from a restaurant in the gas station.

there's that kabob place in bezerkly, in a gas station, that is dammmmmmm good