Comments on: 30 Restaurants in 30 Days: McDonald’s

By: Hypocrite

Hypocrite — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 13:15:37 +0000

If you asked that question to a cashier, thinking they’d know the answer to where the beef comes from, you’re a fool.
If you asked that question to a cashier, knowing they wouldn’t know the answer, you’re harassing them.

So John- you don’t eat any meat products, I take it?

By: FF-Eating American and Proud of It

FF-Eating American and Proud of It — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 22:47:39 +0000

I recall the AJC had an extensive expose of the processing of chickens,back some time ago. It made me so wary that I didn’t eat chicken for 6 years.

I wonder if this guy bothers to ask the Chic-Fil-A cashier where the chicken he’s about to eat came from?

By: HotLantaHobo

HotLantaHobo — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 14:08:55 +0000

It’s a valid question to ask where the beef comes from, but it’s mainly of use in a contamination outbreak. Sadly, in this country our food watchdog agency doesn’t mandate clear tracking of beef sources. You can look at the label on the package of any fresh meat in a European supermarket and see the chain of life of the animal in front of you: where it was born, where it was raised, where it was slaughtered and on what date. Until we have a system like that in this country, we’ll always struggle to contain contamination outbreaks. Apparently the meat industries here can whine and buy off enough politicians to stop this kind of public interest. Other countries take meat safety more seriously.

In the meanwhile, it would be better to ask the counter kid, “What temperature is you meat cooked to?” They darn well better know that answer if they are working the grill. Cook it enough and all the bugs die.

By: Not Going To Use My Usual Name

Not Going To Use My Usual Name — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 14:01:54 +0000

Some people are never, never, never going to agree to anything that requires government regulation because it goes against all their deeply-held principles. I’ll save my mocking of that for some other time, but I think it’s safe to roll my eyes and skip their comments; they have nothing to contribute except a shrill cry of “Democrat! Socialist! Khhaaaaaan! How dare you even consider legislation that would affect a business!” Yeesh.

I agree with Kessler on this one: restaurants from convenience store delis to fast food joints to bars to the highest-caliber five-stars should all have a way to answer customer questions, particularly about their products–or at minimum point them somewhere to get the answer. For instance, the manager should’ve given Kessler the main customer service number to McDonald’s and told him that they would be happy to answer all the questions even if they didn’t have the answers there in-store.

I’m not sure that today’s climate is such that McDonald’s is expected to have that information at every store, but the corporate office certainly should.

By: Chuck

Chuck — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 13:11:33 +0000

Glad you didn’t go into this already determined how it was going to work out.

By: Atlanta Native - the original here

Atlanta Native - the original here — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 12:04:17 +0000

In New York I tried a McVeggie. I eat meat. I just thought I would try it. I took the first bite and was about to take it back as I thought they had given me meat. It wasn’t, but it had that same McDonald’s taste. It was eerie.

By: mike sauerhouse

mike sauerhouse — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 11:41:10 +0000

And you get paid to do this?

By: Aaron

Aaron — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 11:28:48 +0000

Seesh! Talk about high and mighty. You go into a fast-food restaurant, where the average employee is probably barely over 16 and makes just over minimum wage and expect them to know where the beef comes from? As someone who has worked in some of the finest restaurants in Atlanta, I can tell you that most servers at white-table cloth restaurants don’t know where the meat the you’re eating comes from.

In fact I can’t begin to tell you how many lies have been told to customers about where the food came from. Hell most of the time the cooks don’t even know where it comes from. I usually would answer servers who asked stuff like that, “Off the Buckhead Beef truck.” It’s not that they don’t care, but in the middle of a rush on a Saturday night…not the time to have a heart to heart about where ingredients are sourced from.

As far as safety goes. Use some common sense for a minute here. There are 31,000 McDonald’s worldwide. A restaurant chain that size MUST be concerned about keeping their food safe, because if they don’t they go under. Also once food is in the restaurant it’s up to local management to take care of it properly. Source doesn’t mean a damn thing.

Get off your high horse.

By: jim jones

jim jones — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 10:54:15 +0000

Snort, you referred to Kessler as a journalist, but how can you be so sure? I mean, maybe you should ask his manager. After all, without having verified his credentials first, how can anyone really consume anything he puts forth without being skeptical of his ability to produce anything meaningful, or at the very least unbiased? Of course I wouldn’t know, when I got to his article I just stopped reading.

By: Shadow 7071

Shadow 7071 — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 05:00:26 +0000

Kessler, do you think about what you’re doing? Do you read what you write? A couple of days ago you wrote about your marvelous visit to Nuevo Laredo. Many commenters agreed that the place was way over rated, greasy and filthy. Did you ask them where their ingredients come from? Of course not because Nuevo is considered to be one of these chic, in-town eateries that all the cool, mid-town, metro-people rave about. Never mind that the food is prepared in a former bathroom.

But McDonald’s is the correct eatery target of the politically correct crowd. Never mind that they have standards that far, far exceed Nuevo’s. But it’s cool, smart, politically correct that you should ask where does the beef come from. If you’re going to continue this racket at least use some common sense.