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BlackJesus1001 t1_j1repie wrote

That's probably got more to do with the low cost of produce and high rates of drug usage in the average kitchen, better safe than sorry especially for a head of lettuce that costs a dollar or whatever.

Also kitchens are frequently greasy so it might not be practical to clean some types of produce.

Also shit that gets dropped often bruises and again, produce specifically tends to be a tiny fraction of costs.

I think I understand why the people at kitchenconfidential were mocking you.

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onioning t1_j1rg8k5 wrote

Certainly many places have policies to not use stuff that's fallen on the floor. That's more laziness than anything else though. And sure, there may be quality issues that keep you from using something. It remains true that produce can be safely consumed after falling on the floor.

If your floor is so greasy that you can't wash a piece of produce that fell on it then your floor is the problem. Grease can be washed off though.

If someone thinks that produce can not be made safe by washing that is profoundly stupid. Don't defend that idiocy. Just mind bogglingly stupid.

Not sure what drug use has to do with anything though. Are you saying it's justifiable that people believe stupid things because they use drugs?

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UnassumingPseudonym t1_j1srtrk wrote

(TLDR because I started rambling, but short version is that most restaurants are required by health codes to not make an effort to salvage or clean dropped food items because of how profoundly stupid a lot of cooks can be, which makes washing unreliable as a policy, even though it absolutely can be done effectively)

It's less to do with what's actually, logically safe and healthy and more to do with health code regulations, rather than just laziness. Yeah, if you drop something on the floor and it's practical to clean it, you absolutely can clean it and continue to use it without getting anyone sick. Unfortunately, for restaurants, you've got health authorities who can absolutely shut you down if they find out you don't do everything by the book (which washing and using dropped things isn't permitted in a lot of areas), so for restaurants it's almost always less of a headache to just throw it out if it drops, especially when you have a large number of employees, some of whom definitely aren't bright enough to remember to lie to a health inspector if they're ever asked about what's commonly done around the workplace (and who aren't bright enough to properly wash dropped things in the first place even if it were allowed)

Also, and more importantly, r/kitchenconfidential is a weird competitive circlejerk made up of professional cooks who are constantly trying to prove themselves as better than each other. So of course they'd never drop anything on the floor, and even if hypothetically they did, then of course they do everything perfectly and by the book, unlike all the other hacks there who are clearly just posing.

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Practical-Big7550 t1_j1ut580 wrote

Doesn't matter how clean it is, the traffic in kitchens will make it dirty pretty quick. I don't know of any kitchens that require their employees to change their footwear when they go to the restroom. Then they come back and walk with those same shoes that were walking through piss (men's restrooms) and walk about in the kitchen.

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