Cross contamination at Restaurants!

[i_forget]

I LOVEEEEEEEE Pita Pit.
I could live off of their Garden Pitas.....forever!

I have been driving across town to get my pitas for a while now, however they finally opened one close by, so I have been going there.

In the 8-10 times I have been to the new place, I have had them remake my pita 6 times because they DO NOT CLEAN THEIR WORK AREAS and they do not change their gloves after each customer. They work in a line, passing it from one person to the next, so you have two or 3 different people touching your food and they have touched everyone else's food before you.

To me, this is disgusting. When you are preparing fresh food, it should be a priority to maintain a clean working environment.
This place has sauces on the boards, cooked meat mixed in with the veggies and cheese mixed in with the sauces.

I do not like tomatoes in my sandwiches, one day I got a chunk of tomato because it was mixed in with the onions.
One day they rolled my pita up and it was sitting in BBQ sauce.
Today I opened it up in the car and there was tex mex spice all over it.

I have made them re-do them in front of the manager. I guess I am going to have to call him and tell him that he needs to sort this place out before someone gets sick.

[MrsSunshine]

oh dear.. or local sub shop does that.. they don't change their gloves between subs either. never thought it was a bad thing. interesting.

[Yusshin]

The Subway I worked at in Orillia didn't change gloves between clients, esp. at lunch when it's literally impossible to do (30min to make 60+ footlongs between 2-3 employees). The rest of the restaurant was nearly impeccable, except they had a problem with mould in the pop machine's pipes. No matter how many times they cleaned it, it would come back! and you'd find little black chunks in your ice. Icky.

I force them to change their gloves when I go to Subways in Montreal, though. I don't eat pork and do not want pork flavour on my stuff.

[i_forget]

This is the letter I just wrote to them:

Hello,

I am writing to you today because I would like to bring to your attention an issue at the location on XXXX.


Today I purchased a pita at your store. It was a Garden Pita that was to have Spinach, Romaine, Green Peppers, Onions, Mushrooms, Cucumber, Sprouts and Tzatziki sauce. I purchased my pita to go. When I arrived home and opened my pita, I was disappointed because on the outside of my pita, there was a red spice on it. I assumed it was a tex-mex sort of spice because of the heat of it. I managed to wipe away most of it with a damp paper towel, however the taste still lingered on my pita.


While I was eating the pita, I noticed a flavour that was different and I spit out my food, and there was a tomato piece in it.


Now, I understand that the store is busy, especially over lunch time, however this is not the first time that I have had issue with a pita I have ordered, which I why I am bringing this to your attention.


On several occasions, I have had my food remade because it was placed down on sauces that were not cleaned off of the white prep board where they are made.
I have found chunks of meat in my food because the board was dirty and the meat stuck to my pita, and have found cheddar cheese in my tzatziki sauce because it spilled into the sauce and was not removed previously.


I have also had people working the grill touch my food after they have touched meat (moving my pita down the line because there is an assembly line going) and have had to ask the ladies to change their gloves because they have sauces on their gloves and they do not change them between pitas.


In a restaurant, cross contamination is something that is very important and employees should be diligent to ensure that a clean working environment is maintained at all times for the safety of all customers. Having 3 different people touching my food, after they have touched the food of others is not clean.


Please bring this to the attention of your employees. Mere seconds is all it takes to clean up and slow it down a bit to take more care in making the food to not make a mess in the first place.


Thank you for your time,

[i_forget]

I was so sick once from cross contamination that it REALLY bothers me.
There are ways to make the work environment cleaner and still keep it fast.

Every pita is different, so they should be changing their gloves after each customer.
What if they get sprouts that have e-coli on them, make me a pita with sprouts and then make 10 different pitas after mine. They have potentially made 10 additional people sick because they have not maintained a clean working environment.
I know that the odds of these sorts of things happening are minimal, but I do not want to be put at risk.

[nicolthepickle]

Have any of you ever been in a European restaurant? They don't wear the silly gloves. They wash their hands.

[couponmummy]

We don't do a lot of takeouts. If we do, it's McD, Wendy's, or KFC. They are chains worldwide so they have a higher standard for food handling.

I also don't like people handling my food and money, which is the most dirtiest thing in the world, touched by the thousands.

[Shwa Girl]

OP, I don't know what part of Ontario you are in. But each restaurant is inspected by public health and has a sign on the front door (green = pass). You can call public health inspectors, usually with a toll free number and they will do a surprise inspection at the restaurant. Good luck.

[erin9mmm]

When I saw the title cross contamination I was thinking it would have to do with unsanitary things like touching money then food, washroom then food, or cleaning then food. Unless an allergy was involved I don't think I would have have a problem with it. I think I would be more concerned about the waste factor in using so many disposable gloves in one day.

[i_forget]

When I saw the title cross contamination I was thinking it would have to do with unsanitary things like touching money then food, washroom then food, or cleaning then food. Unless an allergy was involved I don't think I would have have a problem with it. I think I would be more concerned about the waste factor in using so many disposable gloves in one day.

I have seen them go from the cash register to the food without changing gloves as well, but they never did that with my food, so I did not want to mention that in my email. There was also a girl with a nasty cold sore on her mouth and she wiped her mouth with her wrist and then wiped her wrist on her smock, which was filthy.

I am probably just over observant and picky about this, but I honestly think that people have no idea that they are doing these things.

[Shwa Girl]

I have seen them go from the cash register to the food without changing gloves as well, but they never did that with my food, so I did not want to mention that in my email. There was also a girl with a nasty cold sore on her mouth and she wiped her mouth with her wrist and then wiped her wrist on her smock, which was filthy.

I am probably just over observant and picky about this, but I honestly think that people have no idea that they are doing these things.

Cash + food. Cold sore + food. Now serious. Call public health today.

[i_forget]

Cash + food. Cold sore + food. Now serious. Call public health today.

I emailed the owner.

If they do not fix the issues, or if I see something worse, then I will.

[electric_viking]

I'm with Shwa Girl on this one. I think the health department needs to be called immediately. I wouldn't waste my time with the email. This appears to be a serious matter that needs to be addressed right away.

[anisa]

it is like they wear gloves to protect themselves, not your food.

i stopped going to these types of sandwich places. they touch the food, the oven door, something else then the food again. i ask them to change into fresh gloves, but it is so nasty i stopped buying food there.

[r0c0upons]

living up to their name, eh, pita "pit"