Eating out? If you want to avoid food poisoning, or just not have anything nasty on your plate, it is best to steer clear of these nine items, as revealed by servers to Reader's Digest.
1. The salad bar. When heading on over to the salad bar, keep in mind that the less popular items hardly ever get replaced, according to Chris P.
"Stuff like lettuce and fresh vegetables gets replaced daily but the less popular or smaller items, like beans and beets, often don’t get replaced more than once a week," he said. " With some of the items, like olives and pickles, I’m told to just dump the new stuff on top so the bottom layer could be months old. So vile!"
2. Lemon in your drink. It is bad enough that the jug of water you use to fill your glass has probably been standing there for ages. It is even worse how the lemon wedges floating around in the water have been prepared. "All the servers would cut the lemons for the day and put them in a big bowl before the restaurant opened," said Heather H." There was zero sanitation. Never washed the fruit. No idea who actually washed their hands. They’d roll off the table, get picked back up, and placed right back in the bowl."
3. The ice machine. The ice machine is one of the dirtiest things in a restaurant. They hardly ever get cleaned out and who knows what could be lurking inside.
"People do not know how rarely ice machines get cleaned inside and out," said Torie T. "Lots of places I’ve worked will take off the nozzles and soak them in bleach and wipe down the outside every day but it’s probably been years since anyone thawed it out and cleaned the inside. I’ve seen ice machines with black mold, slime, and even cockroaches inside them. I don’t love room temperature water but I’d rather drink that than risk a nasty infection."
4. Garnish on your meal. It may come as a shock to hear that the garnish on your plate may have been recycled.
"Most people don’t eat the garnishes on the plate anyhow but I definitely wouldn’t after seeing how many times a chef will grab a leaf of kale or whatever off an incoming plate and drop it onto one going out to customers," explained Ashton L. "We have one dish that has a scoop of cottage cheese on the side. If it doesn’t look touched, the chef will just slide it onto the next plate, or at the end of the night, right back into the container."
5. The breadbasket. Your hands may not have been the only ones to dip into the breadbasket. Other people who could be carrying bacteria and germs also may have touched its contents.
"With low-carb diets being so popular, we get a lot of breadbaskets back that aren’t touched or only have a piece or two missing," said Pietro K. "When we’re rushed sometimes we’ll just spruce it up a little and take it out to the next table. If you really want the bread, order it differently from how it’s usually served — so if all the tables have it sliced, ask for the loaf whole."
6. Hand-tossed salad. Servers have seen it all and there is a reason why they avoid certain items on the menu. For Kirsten C., it is salad.
"Even though some of the most popular items on our menu are salads, I never eat them," she said. "The woman who makes the salads for our restaurant has decided hand-tossed is best. Except she doesn’t wear gloves. And I’ve seen her lick her fingers and scratch her scalp. Shudder."
7. French fries. Certain restaurants rarely change the oil used to deep fry their foods in.
"I used to love French fries before I started my current job. Now I see how seldom they change the frying oil and I’m too grossed out to eat them," said Emmaleigh T. "Fresh frying oil is kind of a light golden color. My restaurant will reuse the same oil until it’s dark brown, like the oil you put in your car. You can smell the rancidness as soon as you walk in the kitchen."
8. Soup of the day. There is a chance that the soup you have ordered has been standing in a warming machine for hours, even days, Antonio M. said.
"I work for a chain restaurant that serves several soups except people rarely order them, especially not the clam chowder," he explained. "I don’t know if it’s just the part of the country I’m in but nobody likes clam chowder here. But corporate says we have to keep it on the menu so it just sits in it’s warming machine all day, every day. They do keep it warm but how good can it taste after being cooked for 12 hours straight?"
9. Meaty dishes. There is nothing wrong with keeping meat frozen but if it has been left to thaw out first, then packed away, it could end in disaster.
"We buy all our meat products frozen which doesn’t sound too bad except when they are delivered sometimes they’ll sit out for hours, slightly thawing before refreezing when we put them away," said Catherine J. "Also, some have been frozen for months or longer."
Related stories:
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.