The sad side of the Happy Meal

Where only first names appear, names have been changed to protect the identities of the sources.

With meat in her left hand and fixings in her right, Rachel, a junior, can only watch helplessly as her sandwich bread falls to the floor. After a moment's hesitation, she picks it back up and resumes the construction of her meal.

But Rachel isn't weighing her health or personal preferences into her decision to adhere to the three-second rule—she is following the orders of her shift supervisor at the fast food restaurant where she's working. And the sandwich is about to go right into the mouth of an unsuspecting customer.

Many Blazers look to fast food restaurants for their daily nourishment. But these speedy snackers might think twice about their choice of stomach filler if they knew about the poor hygiene practices that take place behind the counters.

What's in your dinner?

Rachel, who is a former employee of the Jerry's Subs and Pizza at Four Corners, says that during her sandwich making days, she saw several sanitary infractions in addition to the standard practice of the three-second rule. "Instead of using new condiments every day, they would just saran-wrap them and leave them out," she says. "Also, they didn't wash the trays that they make the pizza on, even if they were filthy."

Senior Brittany Butler, who worked for four months at the Subway on New Hampshire Ave, says that she also witnessed several unhealthy habits practiced by a coworker. "One girl wouldn't wash her hands before she put her gloves on," Butler says. "That is, if she even wore gloves."

Bryan, a junior who is an employee of the McDonald's at Four Corners, says that he witnessed a fellow kitchen staffer go so far as to rummage through the trash for food to serve a customer. "We were switching from breakfast to lunch," Bryan recounts, " and a customer came in and asked for sausage. We had already thrown all the sausages away, but my manager went into the back, pulled some out of the trash can and served them."

A representative from McDonald's denies that the restaurant had any knowledge of the incident reported by Bryan. Similarly, a representative from Jerry's says that the infractions Rachel recounted could not have happened. "There's no way possible," the spokesperson says. "That's definitely not true."

Neither the Jerry's manager who Bryan witnessed rummaging in the trash nor the McDonald's supervisor who told Rachel to salvage food from the floor still work for the restaurants.

A little dirt can really hurt

According to Reid McKey, a program manager for the Mont. County Department of Health and Human Services, there are many standards in place to protect the health of hungry consumers. Offenses classified as the most serious, says McKey, are called "imminent hazard" violations. These include a lack of hot water or refrigeration, spoiled or adulterated food, sick employees, infestation of insects and inadequately cooked food.

McKey says that the consequences of the violations reported above could be potentially serious. "Picking food up off the floor and leaving things out overnight would be major violations," he says. "If we caught the restaurants engaging in these acts they would be fined up to $500 and could be closed."

Any infraction can expose a customer to illness, explains McKey. "Even with the smallest violation, there is a remote possibility that a consumer might be harmed," he says

And while confirmed cases of fast food poisoning are rare, they are far from unprecedented. According to Peter Vilbig of the New York Times' Upfront Magazine, 700 people became ill and four died after eating hamburger meat tainted with the E. Coli virus at Jack in the Box restaurants in 1993.

These statistics may not even illustrate the full scope of the problem, according to Vilbig. Since most food-related illnesses take several days to develop, the source of the tainted food is not always identified. Some of the victims of this untraceable food poisoning are undoubtedly among the 14 Americans who die daily from food-related illnesses.

Clean up your act!

The government plays a large part in keeping the fare of millions of Americans unsafe, according to Vilbig. The Food and Drug Administration, an institution designed as a safeguard for public health, has virtually no control over the enforcement of standards on the meatpacking industry. No serious penalties exist for plants that produce tainted meat.

However, says Vilbig, industry leaders blame outbreaks on the restaurants that serve the meat, citing improper handling and insufficient cooking of food as the causes of the patrons' illnesses.

Whatever the explanation, news of poor hygiene is enough to give Blazers like sophomore Pamela Jabonete pause in selecting the source of their sustenance. "I think unsanitary practices are gross," says Jabonete, who usually eats fast food at least twice a week. "It makes me think twice about eating fast food again," she exclaims.

Rachel agrees with Jabonete about the state of affairs in the fast food kingdom, maintaining that the health practices that she saw in her time at Jerry's were abominable. "If the customers had known how their food had been handled, they would have been disgusted," she says.

But to sophomore Carmen Canavan, cleanliness is of little importance. Although she eats fast food almost every day, she is not overly concerned with the unsanitary practices of the people crafting her meals. "I would probably still eat there because it's so convenient," says Canavan. "It's fast, even if it is out of the trash."

To report possible health code violations, call the Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services at 240-777-1245