Random Grossest Things About Eating at a Buffet (11 items)

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  (#1) One Pair of Tongs Can Be Used All Day

  While there are strict rules on food temperature for buffets, there are no such regulations for the utensils used to serve your meal. Next time you grab a ladle or a pair of tongs at a buffet, take a moment to think about how long they may have been out there and how many people touched them before you did.

  Alternatively, if you get frustrated enough to serve yourself with your hands and/or launch a kitchen utensil, you might find yourself in handcuffs, much like this Portland, OR, woman did for her actions at an area buffet. 
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  (#2) Food Is Often Kept at the Wrong Temperature

  The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) maintains strict guidelines on food temperatures to guard against illness. The FDA advises hot food be kept and served at a temperature of at least 140 degrees or more. When you consider some buffet warmers are designed to keep the food at 110-120 degrees, you see how you might fall victim to a buffet without even realizing it. 
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  (#3) The Food Can Sit There for Hours

   

  Timing is everything when hitting up a buffet. Regardless of the food quality, fresh and piping hot food is certainly more appealing than the alternative. Ideally, you want to get there within 30 minutes of the buffet opening. If you wait until just before the buffet closes, the food could easily have been sitting for hours. 

  The other problem is that food can sit for hours before it even gets to the buffet serving stations. For instance, a manager was fired from a Golden Corral when a video emerged showing raw steak being stored outside by the dumpsters.

   
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  (#4) There Are Dirty Plates Everywhere

  A research study showed that diners at buffets were less likely to go back for food a second or third time if their dirty plate was left on the table. Buffet owners, in a ploy to maximize their profits, often instruct busboys to leave dirty plates on dining tables until after the diners leave. It's good for business owners because their profits are higher, but bad for customers because they get less value for their money and have to eat in a dining room littered with dirty plates - a truly unappetizing sight.
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  (#5) Food Poisoning Is a Real Possibility

  Food poisoning at buffets may happen in two ways. First, there are those cases of mass outbreaks. This can occur when an entire buffet, or section of a buffet, has been contaminated and numerous people contract a food-borne illness. These cases tend to make a pretty big splash and are fairly easy to track. Alternatively, individual outbreaks tend to be quieter affairs. Consider this: one in six Americans will get food poisoning at some point in their lives, and with $1.5 billion spent at buffets in 2005 alone, they are definitely a prime culprit. 
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  (#6) You Have No Idea if the Buffet Is Up to Code

  There is a lot of trust involved when eating at a buffet. You have to trust that the restaurant adheres to the rules of local health ordinances and that items are properly cleaned and prepped to minimize risk and exposure to bacteria and other germs. Some locales grade restaurants on their adherence to food regulations and require that grade be posted within five feet of the restaurant's entrance, but many others do not. Check out this run-down of health codes by state, so you know the rules wherever you may live. 
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  (#7) Anything That Legally Requires a Sneeze Guard Is a Bad Idea

  That lovely and (hopefully) clear piece of glass or plastic that separates you from the food when you look over the buffet is actually called a sneeze guard. This is not just a gross nickname, either. Invented in 1959 by restaurateur Johnny Garneau, the sneeze guard is required by law for any retail buffet. If you have to worry about eating somewhere that people may sneeze on your food en masse, you might want to consider your decision. 
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  (#8) People Don't Wash Their Hands

  There are almost always signs in restrooms attached to food establishments instructing employees to wash their hands before returning to work. This is obviously critical all the time, but especially so at a buffet where so many different people handle each item.

  The bigger issue, though, might be that people don't tend to wash their hands as soon as they get to a restaurant. And if they do, they likely aren't doing so effectively. Research shows that as many as 95% of Americans do not wash their hands properly. This means that numerous bacteria-laden hands may be touching buffet utensils, plates and more. 
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  (#9) Lemon and Lime Wedges Are Disgusting

  This isn't just applicable to buffets, but for any restaurant that has unwashed lemon and limes available to squeeze into your drink. An ABC news study showed that 50% of the lemon wedges tested in 10 restaurants over three states had human fecal matter on them.

  Lemons and limes pick up bacteria easily and they are often not even washed before being put out on tables or next to the soda fountains. And when employees don't wash their hands after using the bathroom, they cut up a bunch of lemons and set them out for an unsuspecting public to consume... well, you can imagine the rest.

  Chipotle has recently moved all its lemons into a cooler behind the counter to combat some of these issues. Take note, everyone else.
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  (#10) You Have No Idea What's Lurking in the Back

  The thing about restaurant kitchens is that you hope they are clean - but you never know. Some of the worst restaurant kitchens have had precarious piles, food all over the floor, random bins everywhere, garbage overflowing - and even open produce perched on top of endless pieces of cardboard. The truth is that peeking behind the curtain is a game you'll never win. Because buffets encourage the consumption of vast amounts of food, that means there are vast amounts of food remnants to be cleaned up by the staff. This turns into a giant mess in the kitchen. 
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  (#11) Buffets Are a Paradise of Gluttony

  Restaurant portions are already bigger than the average, but allow for some semblance of portion control. The food is served, the food is eaten, and the meal is over. With a buffet, however, you can keep going back over and over again. A 2006 study looked at the habits of people who eat more than usual at buffets and noted that seemingly simple choices like sitting at a table rather than a booth and facing toward the buffet instead of away make overeating more likely. 

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