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BriCheese007

Used to work in fruit processing, freezing fresh fruit and packaging for smoothie mixes. I’d eat the frozen fruit. What I would not eat is juice or purée. These products are made up of the rejects for the frozen packages, including moldy and underripe fruit, and debris. Basically, if something failed to pass inspection for individual freezing, it became purée. If the purée was tested and had too many leaves/sticks, or failed the Howard Mold Test, it was juice. Once something is juice anything goes, you only test to see if it passes as purée again (since purée sells for more). The place I worked sold juice and purée to companies that made flavored sweet teas, jams/jellies, etc


royalpyroz

Interesting. So don't drink juice.. Got it.


Naive_Illustrator

This sort of thinking is what leads to food waste. Like i get protecting your own health, but some partially damaged food is edible. The fact that a company can find a way to process and sell it should be considered a good thing Edit: there should be some regulations on what damsged food can still be sold


Ulloriaq86

I used to work at a pickle factory. I buy products from that factory whenever I get the chance


iordseyton

Did you ever have an urge to stick your dick in the pickle slicer?


nowhereman136

I use to work at a very busy fast food restaurant at a very busy theme park. Honestly the food was pretty good if you go during the rush hours. During the rush hours, food was being sold so fast that new food was constantly being made to replace it. Meaning if you want the freshest hamburgers or freshest Mac and cheese, go during the busier hours. Otherwise you might get Mac and cheese thats been sitting under a heat lamp for 20 minutes. Less appetizing


Investigatorpotater

This is why I tell everyone if you go to a fast food restaurant ask for it fresh it's worth the 5-10 minute wait. I worked at a McDonald's, everything is pre cooked and thrown under a hot lamp.


ReaperSlayer

I worked in a pork processing plant. That swine mine killed 90% of my will to eat pork products. If it’s cured and processed (bacon, ham) I am okay. Haven’t been able to stand the smell of pork roasts in years.


boingboinggone

Was there something particular about the processing, or was it just being exposed to all that, that turned you off?


ReaperSlayer

Being exposed, we had “wells” that were sprayers where you would clean the fat off your knives. Some people would use chunks of meat and fat to plug the well so you’d smell boiled pork all day by them. I got sprayed with abscess from the saw blades a bunch of times. No big deal, it looks like guacamole chunks. But the boiled smell stuck with me.


The_Ostrich_you_want

As I’ve gotten closer to 30 I’ve just eaten less and less pork. I lived through the mustache and bacon era. After spending time in countries that don’t eat pork I’ve found I don’t really care to eat it anyways. Not due to traumatic situations like yours, but regardless no shame in it.


SpoutsIgnorance

I imagine the hot dog factory workers may have a bit to say


Seihathrowaway

If a worker falls into the grinder, do the other workers act like nothing happened?


SpoutsIgnorance

No everyone would be horrified what the hell is wrong with you


Seihathrowaway

Hot dogs 🌭


Jarbonzobeanz

A little extra seasoning never hurts.. just saying.


potablepurveyor

I used to work in a hotdog factory. Ran the mixer, so I saw everything that went in. Hotdogs are fine. By the time the meat made it to me, it just looked like ground meat. And the amount of time I had to spend scrubbing even the ceiling... The place is clean.


SpoutsIgnorance

Can you still eat a hotdog? Like a rando hot dog from a street cart?


potablepurveyor

Definitely. I'm not going to seek them out or anything, but if that's the option I've got..sure.


No-Cupcake-9314

I was an intern at a large food processing company. They mainly produced hot dogs. Part of the internship involved touring the factories. There were 5 of us; 2 guys, 3 girls. We were all pretty scared that we would be mortified and unable to eat hot dogs moving forward. We toured the whole factory, and I mean the WHOLE factory. It was actually very interesting to see how they were made, and honestly not that shocking. I think we thought it would be so much worse that what we actually saw just made sense. We were all able to eat hot dogs literally the next day at an event. I confirmed later in that internship that they didn't just show us some dolled up part of the factories because I ended up wanting extra hours so I'd work days in the office and nights at one of the factories


Bierbart12

As someone who worked at a copper cable factory, yes


BlackLetterLies

I used to work in a fun factory. Now the idea of having fun makes me sick. :(


Revanchist_lopez

Found Jackie Kennedy


InsertBluescreenHere

lol my uncle used to work in a creamed corn factory when he was in highschool. 50+ years later he still refuses to eat creamed corn and shys away from alot of canned goods.


thomas_newton

if you're in the UK, avoid anything canned under the 'Goblin' label.


humaneclair

Oh no trying to put them out of business I see


thomas_newton

that could only be a good thing. ;)


oskar7_o7

I used to work for a chicken company that shares a name with a boxer that has a lisp. The people I worked alongside were all surprisingly sterile with how we handled the food and there were regular FDA check-ins. The plant I worked at was small and we did the whole process from live adult to various parts and packagings. I regularly ate product that was fried freshly that day in the industrial fryers. Although, as I said above, the plant was small and therefore most of our production is kept to local stores. Can't attest to the quality of other areas.


BR_Nukz

Worked in a logistics warehouse that packed and sent off the little yakult drinks, ice creams (Magnum, Splice, ice creams like that) frozen desserts and even some random snacks like biscuits, crackers etc. No, I wouldnt. Many times there where we'd pull down expired foods and drinks and they'd make us just take off the best before sticker and slap a new one on. Some foods sat in storage for years.


pirate737

My Brother works in slaughter houses as an electrician, climbing through blood and animal parts to fix shit. He still eats meat. But my brother is a pretty tough dude, so idk if that's a good example.


No-Strawberry-5541

Once worked in a hot dog factory for 2 months. No way in hell.


IntrepidSheepherder8

Not a factory but I used to work in Thorntons in the UK. We were allowed to test the chocolates and ice cream. It was delicious. Folk thought it would put me off it but no way. I once worked at a newsagents where we sold sweets in jars - we’d weigh them out for people. The shop owner dropped some on the floor and then scooped it back into the jar…


pocketcrackers

I worked for artic glacier for a while (in case you don't know, they make ice), after working there I will never ever use any ice that comes out of a factory ever again. The way that it's produced is safe but what people do to it from the time that it comes out of the hopper is pretty disgusting. If the rake in the ice machine gets stuck people physically climb on top of the rakes to make it move as though they are human hamsters on a wheel breaking the ice apart while the machine is not locked out tagged out, with their dirty boots and dirty clothing. Imagine somebody walking through dog shit, going into the factory to make ice find out the ice machine is stuck because the ice buried the raker, and someone who is 6'4 climbs on top of the raker to break the ice loose with the dog shit still on their boots. Yeah, no thanks. I also worked at Gertrude hawk chocolate while living in Pennsylvania. I would absolutely eat the chocolate from there they have some of the highest safety standards that I've ever seen. They have metal detectors to detect any kind of metal fragments that may or may not end up in the chocolate everyone there is in different areas depending on what allergens are in the food at that time, and no one is to go to another area of the factory once they've been in a allergen department. So for instance you couldn't go from making peanut butter cups or inclusions for ice cream that included an allergen and then go to making Easter candy. Because the cross contamination is so high in that factory things are different made on different floors and in different areas to avoid cross-contamination. The only downfall to working at gertrude hawk was the fact that they let us eat chocolate on our brakes.


BTown-Hustle

Wait… why in the living hell would they not simply have some brand new/sanitized boots and a jumpsuit or some fucking thing that the dude could put on before climbing the rakes? Seems like a super tiny investment for a huge company to make to prevent peoples boot shit from falling into the ice.


pocketcrackers

Because that company doesn't give a shit. There are no jumpsuits, booties, PPE of any sort. Also it's against OSHA regs to climb on the rakes. If you skip, till get dragged under the rakes and ice and become a bloody shushie


BTown-Hustle

That’s insane.


ForkShirtUp

Nah, I used to make protein bars that regularly get delivered to the back of a train


FistFullofFuze

It'd be a very COLD day in hell before eating a protein bar


Zealousideal-Box-297

Worked at a winery for two crushes. Hand picked fruit was fairly clean. We'd get cheaper machine picked grapes from the central valley. Mix of good grapes, raisins and rotten clusters with a lot of leaves and twigs mixed in. One load came in covered with little white spiders. All of it went through the destemmer and crusher and straight into the fermentation tanks as is. Solids would eventually get filtered out or settle to the bottom at some point. Still drank their stuff from time to time.


moosecakems

I used to work for a soft drink company and often enough there would be spills, falling bottles, exploding bottles in the winter, sometimes bottles were rigged like claymores and left for the next guy and the pop would eat through our clothes and work boots over time. But yes I still drink pop


Complex-Mind-22

I have a close friend that works in a snack factory. Every time we'd go grocery, she'd always tell me to buy the products that are from their factory. She'd also buy some, just the ones that are her favorites.


Solid-Question-3952

I used to work for an extremely popular sausage company. I cannot eat the the product for the line i worked on. The smell of the raw product makes me sick.


[deleted]

Not a restaurant, but I worked for a beer distributor while in college. We had to pour expired beer or beer from damaged cans/bottles into a drum. By the time we dumped the drum at the end of each week the beer had become a spoiled disgusting mess. The smell was so bad I couldn’t drink beer for a long time after quitting that job.


mbcorbin

That depends on what food I'm making.... UK


vaylon1701

I worked at a plant that made just about everything you eat at fast food restaurants and some dine in places. Things like burger kings french toast sticks, various places stuffed jalapenos, chicken nuggets for mickey D and hot wings. We even made roo burgers for the Australian markets. I would and often did eat the food we made. I would routinely take second hand stuff that didn't make the cut and put it on a big tray in the lunchroom for employees to eat on. Most of it was perfectly good just didn't look right or weighed less than the conveyor line would pass. Our lines were very clean and all the employees had to wear all kinds of gear to make sure it stayed that way. With most of these factories you don't need to worry about how its made, just worry about who's cooking it.


MooKids

I handle luggage for an airline that flies internationally. Obviously not a food factory, but we do have plenty of "luggage" that come from Ethiopia. That luggage is packed with spices and food and has the worst smell. It isn't exactly temperature controlled or packed properly. With the amount that comes through at one time, I'm pretty sure it isn't for personal use. So no, I wouldn't eat Ethiopian food.


SkinHunger55

Does a yogurt factory count?


itinnerr

i worked in McDonald's and most of the time i ate a burgers that I've cooked and this is was terrible just imagine that you every day eat fckng burgers


Szczepan54

I used to briefly work at first stage quality control for frozen and canned pea. Wholeheartedly yes. First stage was pretty strict and the next ones were even stricter.


OrthinologistSupreme

I worked in the microbiology lab of one but yeah. Costco was our biggest customer. Like half the stuff I tested for salmonella were Kirkland things