Restaurant violations: Canada's Restaurant Secrets (CBC Marketplace)

I was a chef from '76 to 2000. I’m not making light of a serious mental health condition but the first head chef I worked under had OCD and was a germaphobe. It was a blessing as they were the hygiene levels that became my norm. He made Ramsey look a total wimp, but he also set my standards for my quality of food.

Watching this show makes me understand why Gordon's always angry at stuff

As a guy who has worked in restaurants for many years, this is absolutely true. If you knew what's going on in the back, you probably wouldn't want eat there! Stay safe and eat at home!

As someone who worked in restaurants one of the biggest issues that leads to this kind of uncleanliness (besides just pure laziness) is that 9/10 we are severely understaffed and therefore have no time to properly clean because we have so many orders to do. I've had my boss yell at me more than once because I stepped off the line to wash my hands while we were busy. One of times raw chicken fell onto the counter so I stopped everything I was doing to sanitize the area but got bitched at for "wasting time" and not making food. If any of you see that a restaurant is pretty busy but you think you're gonna wait anyways I say DO NOT and go somewhere else less busy because SO MANY corners are being cut in the kitchen to keep the food coming out and the money coming in.

The reason people still show up to work sick is because if they don't, they'll probably get fired for calling out or missing work. It's not right but it's very true.

Why do I like Canadian news so much? I'm American!

Once you've worked at a restaurant, you won't ever want to eat out again. You'll be more careful where you eat.

Those red, yellow, and green signs in the front are a pretty good idea. I can definitely see it motivating restaurants to clean up. Nobody would want to go to a restaurant with a yellow sign out front.

I’m American and this is more interesting than our food shows we need this on tv

The "fail, conditional, pass" cards placed in public view is a fantastic idea.

I used to be a working student back in college. The crew members of that fast food chain where I worked were pretty nasty. During my training week, there was this one customer who complained about her fried chicken that was still bloody inside. She was upset. Instead of just replacing her order, the crew took the chicken and tossed into the dirty sink and then popped it into the deep fryer and then served it back to the customer. I was shocked.

A fast food restaurant I worked at had a hand-wash sink just inside the door to the area behind the counter. It didn't matter if you washed your hands in the bathroom or not, you DID have to wash your hands before you went back to work. But at another restaurant, people would sweep and mop the floor with food prep gloves on, and did not change gloves before going back to prepping sandwiches. That's when I quit, because management would not listen.

When I used to work at a restaurant I used to wash my hands every time. I would go to the bathroom wash my hands there and open the door with a napkin. Then I'd go to the small sink we had in the front of the restaurant and wash my hands again. I had some clients tell me that they noticed I would wash my hands a lot. I treated my customers with germ-free hands like I wish they would treat me.

Aight so mom was right when she said we have food at home smh

"Can you make this?!" 'shows garnished plate of cat food'

but when employees do call in sick their boss cuts their hours as a threat so they go to work sick anyway so its on the boss not the employees in that re guard .

I like the two retired health-inspectors featured. We need more government employees like these!

I work at a Tim Horton’s and the biggest problems are: 1. The lack of staff on shift: We always had the exact amount of people to man each station, so when we needed to do breaks or clean it was almost impossible. 2. The time pressure for each order to be less than 30 seconds, we were rushed for every order so it killed our cleanliness and customer service. 3. The changing of standards, almost every week there would be a new standard on how to do something. It got so confusing you never knew what was the correct way.

Growing up my father always address all of us girls to tie our hair back. When we are cooking. You never know your hair might fall into food. It’s a habit every time I cook and keeping washing my hands when handling anything in between.

I work at a grocery store produce dept. We throw out a huge amount of moldy rotten food, and overall we're pretty good about sanitation, but we can't catch everything. So always double check before you buy, and always cook at home.