In the world of fast-food chains, which conjures the image of cleanliness? A health inspector says the chain that tops the list might not be the one most of us expect. It’s Taco Bell.
TikToker @fullof_sunshine, who says she’s a certified health inspector, went viral for sharing this educated opinion. “As a registered health inspector, I’m here to tell you Taco Bell is the cleanest fast-food restaurant there is,” she writes in the post.
It has 6 million views as of this writing.
In a follow-up, she explains that Taco Bell’s procedures for making food are the reason why it’s in the No. 1 spot.
“Taco Bell does no food prep,” she says. “Every meat that they have, beans, veggies are all pre-made, pre-seasoned, pre-cut. And the risk of cross-contamination when handling food is very low.”
That doesn’t mean that an individual location can’t be unsanitary or that no one has ever gotten food poisoning from a Taco Bell. It just means that, particularly if they follow corporate guidelines, it’s less likely than at other chains, in her view.
She says all fast-food chains’ standards are “very high.” But when you cook raw meat and other ingredients, as many do and proudly advertise, there’s an unavoidable increase in the chance of it having salmonella or some other agent that sickens people.
“It is just a pure statement of their procedures of cooking food is very clean,” she says.
Her post inspired plenty of skepticism and claims to have been sickened by Taco Bell. But there were also many self-identified current and former employees backing her up.
“I was genuinely shocked when I got a job there. We did not play about cleaning,” wrote one.
Make A Run For The Bathroom
Taco Bell is known for many things: late-night stops after the bars close, seemingly endless variations of dishes using the same basic ingredients, and, regrettably, gastrointestinal distress. The latter notoriety may have more to do with what it serves than anything about the restaurants themselves.
Many people asked the same basic question: “Then why does it give me the runs?”
Mexican food has a reputation for moving rapidly through your system. Flatulence and loose bowel movements are commonly attributed to Taco Bell.
While there may be some truth to this, it doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with sanitation. It could simply be that your body isn’t used to those items prepared that way and in those quantities.
Put another way, if you only eat McDonald’s, your system might experience some disturbances from a meal of beans, rice, cheese, vegetables, and meat doused in spices.
As one commented, “My theory is that people get upset stomachs after Taco Bell because they don’t eat a lot of fiber and are secretly lactose intolerant.”
In her follow-up, @fullof_sunshine notes that guts are like snowflakes.
“Everyone’s stomach is not the same,” she says. She points the camera to the backseat of the car, where her two children are seated. “These kids have been eating Taco Bell since they were babies, and look at them,” she says. Then she asks them, “Have you guys ever had to use the restroom?”
Both answer in the negative.
“Does it make your stomach hurt?” she presses.
Both shake their heads.
“They eat Taco Bell almost what every week,” she shares.
The Health Inspector Clarifies Her Point
The health inspector told BroBible that she feels many viewers “misinterpreted [her] definition of cleanliness.”
“Because of course, my profession is not common,” she explained.
She elaborated on what makes Taco Bell a low-risk fast-food chain, in her opinion.
“With Taco Bell being a chain that does little to no preparation and very minimal food handling, chances of food cross contamination makes Taco Bell a low risk food. I can’t speak for others and not acknowledge that people have gotten sick from eating Taco Bell and their personal experiences weren’t great but it doesn’t pertain to anything I claimed because I am well aware every location is different,” she shared. “This is just a generalized statement of what makes Taco Bell so clean when it comes to food safety procedures.”
“Additionally, health inspectors really do encourage people to make their personal reports of restaurants to their local health department no matter how small,” she added.
@fullof_sunshine Finding out where I should and shouldn’t eat just changes my whole life’s perspective 😮💨 **PS how to become a health inspector in CA video is available 😁 #Tacobell #tacobellsponserme #healthinspector #careerjobs #worklife #fyp #funfacts
Taco Bell didn’t respond to BroBible’s emailed inquiry.