Whenever we go out to eat, be it at a fine dining establishment or a quick service window, some of us tend to wonder what the journey was for the food that we are looking at on our plates or in our take-out bags.
Many have similar thoughts when buying frozen or pre-packaged dinners at supermarkets.
The answers aren't always readily available, often because the food service industry will go to great lengths to keep them under lock and key. Well aware, most of the time, that current or former employees will spill the beans at one point or another.
Redditor Lilyxrx was curious to hear some of the most well guarded secrets of the food industry, leading them to ask:
"What’s a secret the food industry don’t want you to know?"
Next Time Your Craving Bananas Foster...
"The 'natural flavors' are just big jugs of glycerin with hyper concentrated flavoring in it."
"Banana flavoring is fairly flammable."
"Source: Worked in food manufacturing."- irony_in_the_UK·
Cholesterol Be Darned!
"Chef here."
"It’s salt and fat."
"If you have a question about anything it’s salt and fat."- LongRest
For Efficiency's Sake...
"Olive Garden makes all their necessary pastas for the whole day from 8-10am every morning."
"Partially cooked."
"So when an order comes through, they grab a serving of the needed pasta style and flash cook them in hot water."
"Also, it’s just the brand, Barilla."- Deerhunter86
Justin Bieber Food GIFGiphyBefore You Pay The Extra Money...
"Beekeeper checking in."
"There is no such thing as organic honey."
"I do not treat my bees with chemicals, but I have no idea where they get their nectar."
"A bee can fly up to three miles from a hive to get nectar."
"It is virtually impossible to guarantee they have not gotten nectar from a chemically treated source."- toad__warrior·
If You Ever Wonder What Makes It Taste So Good...
"Unless it’s a health conscious food joint you’re eating at, the food we serve is designed for maximum taste."
"It’s either dense with fat and sugar, or fat and salt "
"E.G. Those mashed potatoes you like?"
"Made with cream, butter, and salt."
"The quiche?"
"Made on cream, not milk."
"Etc, etc."- petuniasweetpea
Before You Start Bragging...
"Dragon fruit isn’t an exotic Asian fruit."
"It’s a cactus fruit, and as such are native to the Americas and can even be grown in the US."- ferretmonkey
dragon fruit GIF by Feliks Tomasz KonczakowskiGiphyIn Case You're Wondering why That Taste Is So Familiar...
"A lot of the processed cheese and cream cheese is all the same recipe we just switch the labels and packaging for the different brands we run."
"Source: I work in a cheese factory in a company that services 75% of America's domestic market."- anon5678903276
Another Reason To Have No Guilt Over Take Out...
"Well."
"I work at Dominos, and we are kept afloat by the people who don't coupon and pay full menu price."
"You people are the unsung heroes of labor."- LoweeLL
Unlike Any Chocolate...
"When I worked at a mass production bakery the chocolate for the chocolate covered doughnuts came in giant frozen blocks of 4x4 pieces and contained no actual chocolate what so over."
"When unfrozen it was like some sort of nasty smelling paraffin wax that I would break up with a hammer and place into a melter that would then pour over the doughnuts."- gil_beard
Chocolate Dessert GIF by HuffPostGiphyWhat Do Orange Juice And Whiskey Have In Common?
"The reason orange juice tastes consistently the same year round, even though it's a crop harvested once a year, is because citrus oils and citrus flavor are added back to different batches and blended all together."
"Similar to how whiskey is blended from multiple barrels to make it consistent."
"The difference is that even though extra stuff is added back into the OJ, it doesn't need to be labeled because the flavors contain all ingredients from oranges (FTNF-from the named fruit) so the FDA doesn't mandate labeling additional ingredients."- PensiveDoughnut
Does That Explain Their Shape?
"Pringles (and baked Lays/similar) are made of rehydrated and compressed rejected/excess parts of potatoes that go into regular chips."
"I learned that from my dietician at work and thought that was odd."
"I still like them over regular chips."- bluesasaurusrex
A Secret Better Not Known...
"The 11 herbs and spices secret recipe."- NemoTheOneTrueGod
Food Pouring GIF by Great Big StoryGiphyJust Pop It In The Fryer...
"I was a young lad working at Church's Fried Chicken during the summer, many years ago."
"The owner refused to throw out chicken that had already gone bad; to the point where you'd gag if you smell them."
"Apparently if you batter them bad boys up and deep fry them, the rancid smell goes away."
"His customers never knew they were eating spoiled chicken."- Dirt_E_Harry·
Sweet... But Safe!
"The amount of sugar that goes into Costco bakery products is absurd, especially the apple pie."
"That being said; Costco does not f*ck around when it comes to food safety."
"Every area that is responsible for producing food is most likely cleaner than a white room for producing computer parts."
"There are virtually zero roaches, we found one in the bakery once and shut it down until the exterminator did his thing that very night."
"Someone returned a package of dinner rolls because their child had bit into one and a sharp piece of metal was in it, within less than 2 minutes every manager in the building was doing an investigation that led all the way up to the regional manager and his boss for several hours and determined that it had come off of a piece of machinery before it reached our location."
"We throw away rotisserie chickens if they have left (even for a few minutes) the shelf and someone tries to put it back."- Deathnachos
Costco GIF by hero0fwarGiphyWe'd like to think that everyone who works in the food industry shares the same high standards.
But, as in any industry, there are those out there who will cut corners for speedier results.
On the bright side, it does save you the trouble when deciding what cream cheese to buy...
get the hose....
GiphyI jumped into what was essentially sewer runoff, chest high swirling river of poop, to pull out a four year old boy who had fallen in.
It was in Mexico and next to the site I was working. Kid just fell in and I jumped in after him since the sewage was over his head. Managed to cut my leg open too, so I had to go to the hospital and get a tetanus shot.
Kid was fine, pulled him out, mom hosed him off and sent him back to playing.
When the puss is running...
I once examined a patient's leg wound without gloves on; looking for fluctuant areas that might indicate an abscess. Bad idea. Next thing my finger pierces the skin (thinned from necrosis and under tension from the pus) and was actually gliding up under the skin. In the split second it took me to realize this an inordinate amount of puss came streaming out onto my hand and arm. Took several minutes to compose myself afterwards. Very nearly wretched a number of times. I'm also pretty sure I finished an entire bottle of hibiscrub washing my hands repeatedly.
The Spittoon.
As a kid. Don't know why I took a swig from a random soda can left at the sink in a public laundry mat. Turns out it had been used as an ash tray and possibly dip spittoon.
To the Dumpster.
Once when my roommate was using the bathroom and I needed to poop *right away* and I didn't want to deal with her bull trying to convince her I needed to use the bathroom worse than her I went into the kitchen and ripped 4 sheets of paper towel off the roll, went to my room and closed the door, folded the paper towels to in a double layer, and took a poop on the paper towel. Miraculously, it all landed perfectly on the paper towel and I was able to fold it up and put it in a plastic grocery bag and tie it off like a gigantic dog poop and take it out to throw away in the dumpster outside.
Damn Junior Mints.
Giphy9 years old, Dropped a milk dud in the movie theatre so pushed my hand the seats to find it. Found it proceeded to eat it and it was a damn junior mint.
Scars me to this day.
boys & their M & M's....
I was in Boy Scouts when I was a teenager. We were on a week long backpacking trip. As teens do... We started making stupid bets/dares.
One was, "Who can do the grossest thing to an M&M and then eat it?"
I took off the boots I had been hiking in. Took off my funky sock (soaked in swamp water). Wrung it out on a few M&Ms in my hand. And ate the handful of M&Ms and whatever puddle of swamp water was in my palm.
Out with the Cow.
While doing a rectal exam to make a pregnancy diagnosis in cow, it managed to poo directly into my open mouth.
Salmonella & Snot...
Not me, but a buddy of mine was in a fight with his GF, she was saying he always under cooks the chicken, and she's going to get salmonella. So he takes a raw drumstick and slurps the meat off the bone out of spite.
It made me shiver in a way that I've only done after reading a story on reddit about a mother using her mouth to suck snot from a baby's nose.
Slumped over the toilet...
College: I was drunk and high and all those things and decided my hands didn't work.
Our dorms had a shared bathroom and I was in the stalls, hoping to puke in the toilet. I thought "man it would be rude of me to puke all over the seat, I better put it up just in case"
Since my hands didn't work, I grabbed the seat with my teeth and put it up.
Never puked though.
Edit: Kind of embarrassed this got so visible. Thanks for the gold and silver. To answer the most frequently asked question, I was really messed up, sitting on the floor, slumped over the toilet. Standing up and using my feet didn't seem like a viable option at the time. Don't do drugs kids.
Litterer....
GiphyWhen I was a toddler, I crawled into the cat box and started playing in the "sand." Mom of course had to get pictures before stopping her kid from playing with cat poop.