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Redditor Miserable_Papaya1814 was eager to learn some of the most shocking secrets about the food industry from first-hand accounts of employees, leading them to ask:Unwanted Extra Ingredients...
Season 11 Cooking GIF by MasterchefGiphy
You Have No Idea What's Been In There...
Waste Management Food GIF by UC DavisGiphy
Don't Believe Everything You Hear... (But Remember, This One Was In Canada...)
Happy Season 17 GIF by The SimpsonsGiphy
mice GIFGiphy
Remember, All These Incidents Are Case By Case...
They Trick You With The Language
Catering Happy Birthday GIF by Feliks Tomasz KonczakowskiGiphy
"What dark facts do you know about food industry?"
Unwanted Extra Ingredients...
"Sometimes the salads aren't bug free."
"There were times where I received crap for taking too long washing lettuce."
"Staff would wash a large container of lettuce like once or twice."
'I did it 3 or 4 times."
"I didn't stop until the water was clear and had no bugs."
"The others had a 'who cares' attitude."
"One time my boss needed my help and said to me frustrated, 'The lettuce is already washed, unpack it in salads quickly'."
"The lettuce looked dirty so I said to myself 'I can't sell this to people'."
"I washed it and guess what the water looked like."
"Dark brown from soil, 50+ dead gnats, a living and swimming spider the size of a penny."- FightStageYouTube
The Contaminants Will Not, Though...
"Worse I participated in as kitchen staff in a rather top-flight restaurant."
"On a slow summer Sunday afternoon, the boss sent us down to the walk-in meat coolers to spray paint the rusted walls."
"We were instructed to not remove the contents of cooler first; rather just shift the meat from one side of cooler to other."
"The coat of silver spray paint will come off during cooking."- Zealousideal_Lie_383
Season 11 Cooking GIF by MasterchefGiphyYou Have No Idea What's Been In There...
"The deep fryer grease is long overdue for a change; but it’s expensive to do so nightly."- Zealousideal_Lie_383
And People Go To Bed Hungry...
"The amount of waste thrown away every single day by grocery stores."
"I worked in the meat department of a decently sized grocery store and the waste their was nauseating."
"I sh*t you not, we would throw away an industrial sized garbage bin worth of meat, fish, and poultry every single day."
"The expiration dates dictated everything which is obviously a sensible policy to have, but they wouldn't do anything about it."
"They wouldn't donate it, let employees take it home, or make adjustments to the orders so we wouldn't have to throw so much away."
"The reasoning was always 'better have to much than not enough' which I guess makes a little sense, but when I am throwing away dozens of pounds of tenderloins, center cut fish and shellfish per night, its to much."
"Mind you, this is one department of one grocery store."
"Sorry for the rant but I feel like it needed to be said."- Zastrow_Studios
Waste Management Food GIF by UC DavisGiphyThere's A Reason They're "All You Can Eat..."
"In my country, buffets often sell spoiled food, like if the employees see mold on top of the sour cream, they just scrape it down and continue selling it."
"Also, if they sell cooked meat, they often leave them on the counter for days and add some oil to it every morning to look fresh."- Wooden_Potential_699
Don't Believe Everything You Hear... (But Remember, This One Was In Canada...)
"So odd to see all of the comments that chain places are dirty!"
"On the weekends I work as a server in the lounge of Boston Pizza (Canadian chain—not sure if there are any in the states) and when I started working there I was seriously impressed with the cleanliness procedures!"
"For one example, parmesan and chilli containers are emptied and cleaned every night, as well as salt and pepper shakers!"
"Kitchen protocols are very clean and organized as well!"- noobishpineapple
Happy Season 17 GIF by The SimpsonsGiphyNot Exactly "Haute Cuisine"...
"You'd never want to eat at a restaurant again once you saw how much of your $70 meal for two came frozen and pre-prepared in plastic bags."- PhilipLiptonSchrute
It's Not Just The Greens That Need Washing...
"Grocery distribution warehouses are often extremely filthy and rarely cleaned."
"Wash anything canned, bottled or jarred!"
"They're filthy as hell, covered in microplastics, rotten food, mouse pee, bird sh*t, etc etc."
"I used to do maintenance on conveyor systems for a major US chain and they just send sh*t flying down the conveyors so fast that, its fairly common for glass to shatter because of the vibrations, food to fall off, etc etc."
"I saw Bats, Birds and Mice in that facility, but it was within tolerance of their health policy."
"Also saw people that were sick sneezing and coughing on products."
"Never saw a floor scrubber go through the warehouse the entire 3mo I worked there and I was doing alternating double shifts!"
"The only time I saw a broom was if there was shattered glass."- -Plunder-Bunny-
mice GIFGiphyRemember, All These Incidents Are Case By Case...
"As a former chef, I've got to say that I've never seen any of the horrible stuff mentioned here over my career (mostly higher end and fine dining establishments)."
"We on ocassion would have things like frozen airline chicken breasts brought in, but other than that we did all prep and cooking by hand with fresh ingredients from mostly local purveyors when possible."
"We also broke down and deep cleaned every night from the ranges to the floors to the wells to the vents."
"Every night."
"Myself and staff have always taken this sh*t very seriously, and it's always disappointing when you hear of this kind of behavior."
"Do better, people."- iamtehryan
They Trick You With The Language
"It’s more like misleading labeling."
"No sugar."
"Right?"
"Wrong if you read ingredients on a lot of these packaging it will say things like maltodextrin and dextrose."
"That’s actually a sugar."
"Because of regulation they only have to label it no sugar and people think it’s healthy, etc."- SavemebabyK
Maybe Just Stick With Sausage...
"Worked in a pepperoni factory 20+ years ago as an accountant."
"Found that the more MSP in the bill of materials, the lower quality and cheaper the product."
"Looking at the stuff, it looked kind of like an old square crumbly eraser if you remember those."
"So I asked what MSP was."
"It's 'mechanically separated pork'."
"When I asked what that means, they told me that after all the good meat is cut off of a pig, a power washer is used to blast the remaining flesh off the carcass."
"That's scooped up, dried out and packaged as MSP."
"Enjoy your next cheap pepperoni pizza."- Lahk74
Catering Happy Birthday GIF by Feliks Tomasz KonczakowskiGiphyIt's very easy to decide not to eat at a certain restaurant, or dine at a certain grocery store owing to a less-than-appealing appearance.
That being said, many people might be surprised to discover that conditions at the "higher end" options might be as bad or worse.
Then too... if the food is delicious, and has yet to make you sick, then perhaps ignorance is, in fact, bliss.
I love facts and statistics. It's always good to know the popular averages.
How Much?
jesus GIFGiphy"If you earned $180,000 per day since Jesus was born, you still wouldn’t have as much money as Jeff Bezos."
water_fountain_
Teeth
"Of the 335 million people living in the United States, approximately 23 million adults are completely edentulous (have no teeth)."
toothfixingfiend
"My guess is it's become quite common to get full dentures, including pulling out teeth for them. That's like 8 percent of the population, and I basically never ever see people with visibly no teeth. But I know several who have full dentures and probably see a lot more without realizing it."
Ok-Control-787
Speed Racer
"Racing car drivers in the 1950s, 1960s and even into the 1970s had a lower survival rate than WWII fighter pilots. Meaning those racing drivers were statistically more likely to die than those flying in battle. Crazy."
Haunebu52
"To add to this my interesting statistic is that there’s still around 240k WWII vets still kicking. But 234 die on average every day."
thegrandpineapple
100 Trips
"I'm an Uber driver with around 750 trips, so statistically I've been alone in a car with around 7 or so psychopaths."
KeyParticular8086
"I did Uber a few years back, maybe did 100 trips. I often wonder what is the worst thing ever done by any of those passengers. Aside from the drunk girl who peed herself on St Patrick’s day."
420buttbabies69
DUI
drunk drivers GIFGiphy"The average drunk driver drives under the influence more than 80 times before being arrested for the first time."
Sleepy_potato21
I feel 10X smarter already!!
"don't go there"
Fishing Fail GIF by ConesulfozGiphy"Protected fishing zones in Europe are more overfished than unprotected zones. People hear 'don't go there' and then go there."
let-123
Right and Left
"My favorite statistic, as a left-handed person myself, is that southpaws die, on average, 13 years younger than right-handed people. I had always heard this attributed to the fact that power tools are generally designed for right-handed users, making many of them awkward and dangerous for left-handed people."
"But the real explanation is far more interesting. See, until the middle of the 20th century, being left-handed was heavily stigmatized, and often viewed as a sign of the devil. Teachers would not allow their left-handed students to actually use their dominant hand."
"This actually proved to be somewhat effective. So as left-handedness became more accepted, lefty children were no longer forced to use their right hand, but older people who were naturally left-handed but forced to use their right hand continued to identify as right-handed."
"Because of this, the average age of self-described left-handed people was significantly lower than it would be if not for the previous generation being forced into right-handedness. And when the average age of a group of people is lower, the average age of death tends to follow suit."
Daniaghju
1% to 27%
"Some EMS agencies in Arizona and Nevada have been using CCR (cardiocerebral resuscitation) instead of the standard CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation). Basically starting by doing 200 chest compression non stop instead of 30 with 2 rescue breaths."
"Within a year of implementing it, EMS providers reported that their save rate went from 1% to 27%. This last year that number has gone up to around 50%. Furthermore, the saves are no longer just getting a pulse/heartbeat back, the people are now more often neurologically intact."
poizunman206
On the Waves
"The most dangerous world record to attempt is the water speed record, with an 85% mortality rate. The reason being that at the speeds they reach (300+ mph), air resistance is so strong that if the boat tilts even slightly too far up, it will completely flip and crash into the water at insanely fast speeds. And as you can imagine, it's pretty easy to tilt too far up when you're constantly bouncing on waves."
AppleEnslaver
Drainage
"It would take 1.2 million mosquitoes, each sucking at once, to completely drain the average human of blood."
ofsquire
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I'm afraid to learn more about humanity. Also, I don't want to read about end of life stuff. Statistically, I want to believe there is a way to live forever.
Shark Week Candy GIF by TrolliPick a Hand
"My favorite statistic, as a left-handed person myself, is that southpaws die, on average, 13 years younger than right-handed people. I had always heard this attributed to the fact that power tools are generally designed for right-handed users, making many of them awkward and dangerous for left-handed people. But the real explanation is far more interesting."
"See, until the middle of the 20th century, being left-handed was heavily stigmatized, and often viewed as a sign of the devil. Teachers would not allow their left-handed students to actually use their dominant hand. This actually proved to be somewhat effective."
"So as left-handedness became more accepted, lefty children were no longer forced to use their right hand, but older people who were naturally left-handed but forced to use their right hand continued to identify as right-handed."
"Because of this, the average age of self-described left-handed people was significantly lower than it would be if not for the previous generation being forced into right-handedness. And when the average age of a group of people is lower, the average age of death tends to follow suit."
Woof
"One fact that I always love sharing is that ravens and wolves will work together to find food, the ravens act as scouts for the wolf pack and when they find an animal, dead or alive, they will use a special call to alert the pack of the direction of the food, really interesting stuff."
Angles...
"The bond angle between the oxygen and hydrogen atoms in a water molecule is exactly 104.5 degrees. This peculiar angle allows water to be less dense when solid than when liquid, which is why ice floats. If ice didn't float, it's unlikely that life would be possible, at least in the sense that we know it."
Give me a Calendar
Dog Gif GIFGiphy"People born in the springtime have a 15% higher chance of having anorexia, people born in October have a 10% less likely chance of any other month to have one."
As a New Yorker... who are y'all biting? And prefer my fabulous fall birthday.
Logistics
Civil War Trailer GIFGiphy"At the battle of Gettysburg, the South came in from the north and the North came in from the south."
"games played"
"If the entire world participated in a single elimination rock-paper-scissor tournament it would be over in 33 rounds."
"I think "rounds" does not imply "games played" but "people facing off and deciding on a winner based on a set of rules, which might require more than one game". The classic is "best of three; ties are repeated". That is more complex, especially as the probability of each choice is not 1/3 for each player to chose one of the possible hands (this game has been examined). but it still does not change the number of "rounds" where two players face off."
People Share The Most Selfless Thing They've Ever Secretly Done | George Takei’s Oh Myyy
A simple gesture from a good samaritan can go a long way. It could even inspire a chain of people paying it forward. But there's a certain rush in knowing yo...Meow
"Polydactyl cats, or cats with more than the typical number of toes, were once considered lucky by sailors and were highly desired to have on ships. When the sailors made port, the cats did too. Because of this the New England coastline has a higher number of polydactyl feral cats than anywhere else in the world."
- Diredoe
"Poison King"
"Mithridates VI, King of Pontus, was one of the Roman Republic's most terrifying enemies after Hannibal Barca. He performing a genocide of Roman colonists in modern-day western Turkey in an event called the Asiatic Vespers. This led to conflict with the Romans in the Mithridatic Wars (yeah, he had a series of wars named after himself), but ultimately lost to the Roman war machine after 20 years of conflict."
"Also was known as the "Poison King", due to the fact he routinely poisoned himself to build up immunity because he was so paranoid about being poisoned by any one of his numerous courtly rivals. Honestly, this whole man's life was just wild. I recommend reading the biography in my source below! Source: https://www.livius.org/articles/person/mithridates/"
Average
The One Where Estelle Dies Episode 15 GIF by FriendsGiphy"The average person believes they are smarter than the average person."
- SmackEh
MEGA/Micro
"Scientist had to come up with a unit of measure to tell people how bad Nuclear death would be. So they came up with MEGADEATH."
The inverse of a megadeath is a micromort, which is a statistical tool used to describe a person's chance of dying in a given period."
"On a more light hearted note, when they had to come up with a unit for every day radiation exposure that are actually not that bad they invented the banana equivalent."
Colors for All...
"The Olympic flag's colors are always red, black, blue, green, and yellow rings on a field of white. This is because at least one of those colors appears on the flag of every nation on the planet."
"Every time I see this I want a country to change their flag to just purple or orange."
"And Green was required only because of Libya until Ghaddafi was removed. It can technically now be removed."
- tnick771
Shut up Wayne!
hockey GIFGiphy"The highest scoring pair of brothers in NHL history are Wayne and Brent Gretzky, with 2,861 points combined. Wayne scored 2,857 of these points. Brent scored 4. Wayne brings this up every year at Christmas."
Fiction
"My friend in high school had this novel that was nothing but a bunch of interesting statistics. She read through the entire thing (had to be 100+ pages) and on one of the last pages it said "70% of the statistics in this book are made up." She was so mad."
- Alethi
Make a Wish
"In a room of 23 people there is a 50% chance two of them have the same birthday. In a room of 72 it's almost certain."
"I have first hand experience of this! I was on a bus coming back from Colonial Williamsburg to my hotel and somehow we got on the topic of birthdays and it turned out me and someone else on the bus had the same birthday!"
flash of light...
"Certain types of lighthouses are identified by the timing between each flash of light. You could have two lighthouses on the same coast, one blinks every 5s, the other every 7s. Sailors can then identify which lighthouse is which, what coast they're on, and what hazard each lighthouse is warning of. This is used in combination with a kinda lighthouse log book, which notes the timings of each lighthouse for a certain area."
"This was more commonly used before advances in location/gps technology, but it's still relevant today. I find the simple logic of this, given it's age, ingenious, and I tell as many people as I can, when I can. Along with a bunch of other useless info. Haha."
And Tea?
"When people are asked What they like in a perfect Cup of coffee, the top three words are bold dark aromatic. When people are given coffee options they pick warm creamy and sweet. People Often say one thing But actually mean another."
- Csj2454
"When I'm asked what I like in a perfect Cup of coffee, I usually say Whiskey."
A-HAAA!!!
Down With Love Omg GIFGiphy"Unlike most phobias, which cause blood pressure to spike, fear of blood makes it drop, hence the fainting."
minus the wrap...
"Saran Wrap can fix a corked bottle of wine- Ever opened a corked bottle of wine? Smells nasty, tastes nasty. If you can't return it, you can pour it into a decanter or pitcher and add a crumbled up piece of saran wrap in it. The TCA molecules that make thawing corked will bond to the saran wrap and then the wine will be drinkable (minus the wrap) after that. It will only ever get to about 80% of what it should taste like, but it's no longer gross."
Ah wisdom, what a gift. And what a burden.
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I'm a Survivor!!
Giphy"I was cured of Stage 3b lung cancer."
Catzenpudl
"I'm an AML Leukemia survivor! I'll be 15 years in remission just before my 17th birthday. Glad you made it out ok :)"
aeduff
Bad Oranges.
"I'm allergic to the chemical released when fresh oranges are peeled. That first spray when you open an orange will put me into anaphylactic shock. Super specific, super rare when the allergy is that severe. Bad oranges."
tsaboatnotaboot
"Oh gosh, that sounds really scary! I'm super sensitive to oranges being peeled as well, but have never experienced anaphylaxis! I usually just have to grab my puffer and that's it."
dinsparkles
The Breath.
"I'm currently breathing with someone else's lungs."
Cdf12345
"So am I! When did you have your transplant? I just had my 20 year anniversary a few months ago."
piper1871
The Rarity.
"Benign brain tumor that may have been sitting there my whole life."
"My doctors say lots of people could be walking around and not even know it so who knows how rare it is."
intersecting_lines
Twins.
Giphy"I'm chimeric, except, I have two twins. I'm walking around with my fraternal twin brothers DNA and identical twin sisters spinal tube next to my spinal tube. I was supposed to be three individuals."
hhh1978
"Surprise"
"I am born on the same date as my dad and great grandpa."
D0z3rD04
"You have ruined too many birthdays. Your dad was gonna celebrate it and you were just like "surprise" lol."
Jesus297628863
Romania.
"I was one of the few Romanian orphans to receive a good life."
djentrify
"I wasn't orphaned, but i was abused. Anyone that knows me and my family and past.. they keep wondering how i ended up so sane and functional. There are scars and trauma hidden, but I'm much better than 99% of the people who go through what i did. My brain helped, i have big gaps of memory, years of my childhood missing and most of my school life up till 10th grade... i just don't remember.."
"But OP, Im proud of you! We'll show them!"
VforVali
1 in a Hundred.
"I have epilepsy. So about 1 in 100, not that rare (at all really) But, I've had a status epilepticus which is when you have seizures that don't stop until you die, without intervention. I woke up in the ICU with my hands strapped to the bed, a feeding tube in, a catheter and an insanely sore throat from being intubated."
"I also have had surgery where they drilled two holes in my skull and inserted two subdural electrodes to find out where the seizures originate from. That's under the dura matter, right on the surface of my brain. Still have two holes in my skull now. I always thought they'd grow over, but apparently just the exposed marrow? around the edges closed itself up."
"So, I want to be donated to a university and turned into a skeleton when I die."
shunkamunka
Don't Make Mom Mad.
"I have sickle cell anemia."
My skin is white.
"Ive had doctors ask me 'are you sure you have sickle cell? Want to be retested?' This has happened 6 times that I remember. I've never seen my mom angrier lol."
KylesAGSspec
Stay Cool.
Giphy"Instead of sweating I just get really really cold when working out. So far no health problems just a cool way to freak out my friends."
UnusualBloo
Leaper!
Giphy"I am a leap day baby! Coming up on 6 years old. :)"
kelsymew
"And when you reach your eighteenth birthday, you'll no longer be an apprentice pirate! Huzzah!"
ClearBrightLight
Making it Through....
"Being reasonably well-adjusted despite spending years as a foster kid where some of the homes were abusive."
Tuberoinfundibular
"This made me smile. I hope your life continues to get better."
Singularjoy
Three Times a Charm...
"I've had chicken pox twice."
henrythethirteenth
"Me too! Apparently there is a "mild" and "not mild" version of the virus. The "mild" version protects against both strains, but the "not" version only protects against "not" strains. Thus, if you get the nasty version first, you can get the more mild version and have chicken pox twice. I have no idea how this will relate to shingles later in life, but we're probably screwed."
"Lucky us."
Buugybuug
I'm Beautiful.
"I'm an asian and also a natural ginger"
"I'll send a pic to the people who've asked to see in a bit, I don't wanna blow my reddit anonymity. Just DM me if you want to see and haven't left a comment yet."
18 Months In....
"I'm an 18 month survivor of Stage 3 pancreatic cancer and currently in complete remission."
Bamajoe34
"Being a doctor, I know how scary the pancreatic cancer is, so this made me smile. You only find out about it late, and the remission is very rare especially at a stage 3 or 4, which makes you very lucky. However gotta be careful, do your check-ups regularly because you never know."
hornysisyphus
Unicorns.
"Left handed, dyspraxic and coeliac!"
"I'm like the unicorn nobody asked for."
haemwrecker
"Left handed Praxies of the world unite!! Hey there buddy 😁"
thepurplehedgehog
Life of the Party!
"Cross-dominant, Aspie, Ulcerative Collitis, Hemipeligic Migraines, and Narcolespy."
"I'm fun at parties."
McRedditerFace
"I was going to call you a quitter (the joke I always use for U.C. folks, because Crohn's disease is 'gum to bum') but never mind you're way worse off. Enjoy those parties, you've earned it."
mini_garth_b
Twice Survived.
"I was present the two times the US was attacked on American soil. I lived in Pearl City, Hawaii just outside of Pearl Harbor when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on 12/7//1941. I worked in the Pentagon when a missile struck it on 9/11/2001."
"Edit: To all those correcting me, yes it was a plane and not a missile. In my very old age I get confused sometimes. When I evacuated the Pentagon as ordered, I could see the part of the plane that was sticking out of the side of the Pentagon. Took me a hell of a long time to get home because of the incredible traffic jam that occurred in the aftermath."
HiBrucke6
The Rarity of Women.
"I'm a colorblind woman. Apparently, it's 8x rarer in women than in men."
MissAJHunter
"That's because women need two X chromosomes with the colorblind gene for it to present iirc. Otherwise, a woman is simply a carrier. This also means that a woman can only be colorblind if her father is also colorblind iirc."
"Since men only have the one X, they only need one parent to have the gene. So you can have two color-seeing parents and a colorblind son. The mother was a carrier."
"Edit: I should specify that this is true for red-green colorblindness, which is inherited through sex chromosomes. But blue colorblindness is not, and thus the statistics are different."
SuddenTerrible_Haiku
"See the air"
Giphy"I have visual snow (you see tiny flickering dots everywhere)."
the_mighty-chaddicus
"I didn't realize there was a name for this. I remember when I was a little kid, maybe ten, trying to explain to my parents that I could "see the air," because everything seemed to be covered in tiny dots. I notice this more often in lower light situations, kinda looks like the grain or "noise" you'd see in a photo. But it's very mild for me so I don't know if it's the same thing."
86sleepypenguins
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Reddit user throwdowntown69 asked:
"What's a statistic that blew your mind?"
Canada
Giphy"More than 50% of all of Canada lives below this little red line. Which is why our population distribution is so wonky."
Hockey
"If you take away all of Wayne Gretzky's hockey goals, he's still the league's all-time points leader solely on assists."
USA
"Seen on r/todayilearned the other day:"
"The USA has the 3rd highest population in the world. If it had a billion more people, it would still have the 3rd highest population in the world."
"The difference between a million and a billion is roughly a billion."
Cat
Giphy"Cats who fall from less than six stories, and are still alive, have greater injuries than cats who fall from higher than six stories."
"Feline High-Rise syndrome and such. Higher up, they have enough time to reach terminal velocity and relax their bodies because they don't feel like they're falling, so they don't hit the ground fully braced. The shorter distance falling doesn't allow for this, and results in greater injuries to the cat."
Cost
"It costs the government less money to build and give people houses/places to live than it would be to have them be homeless. Mostly due to the increase burden homeless people have on the health care and justice systems."
"God I wish more people understood this. If housing and healthcare were made more affordable by public means it would be WAY less expensive for everyone."
Beatles
"The Beatles were only together for 7 years...all those hits and fame from only 7 years. It's bizarre."
Combination
"There is almost no chance that the same exact combination has been achieved twice in a completely shuffled deck of cards."
"To put it in perspective, there are more combinations to shuffle 52 cards than there are atoms on this planet."
Dinosaurs
"Dinosaurs ruled the earth for so long that T-Rex was much closer to seeing Justin Bieber in concert than it was to seeing a stegosaurus."
Statistics can really alter our perception, that's for sure!
Do you have any cool figures that will blow our minds? Let us know in the comments below.