Dirty Dining

The horror stories are stomach turning, but rare. To get the big picture, Dateline hired a sampling company to randomly choose 1000 fast food restaurants -- 100 each from the biggest chains. We asked for a sample from all over the country.

Then we collected a year's worth of city and county health reports for each restaurant, 2,400 inspections in all.  It took six weeks to gather all the reports -- and another month to analyze them for critical violations.  When questions came up, we called the local health inspector to get the answer.  We learned inspection standards vary across the country, but every jurisdiction counts critical violations, the ones that can make you sick.  From restaurant owners to food inspectors, everyone agrees, one critical violation is one too many, so that's all we counted for our survey. 

Dateline compiled those thousands of health reports to tell you which chain in our survey does the best job keeping its restaurants clean.  Since inspectors show up unannounced several times a year, depending on local procedures, we calculated the average number of critical violations per inspection, as a way to compare the chains. From the restaurant chain that kept things cleanest to the chain with the poorest performance in our survey, here are Dateline's Dirty Dining rankings.

1. Jack in the Box: For every 100 routine health inspections, Jack in the Box averaged 45 critical violations. That's less than one critical violation for every two inspections. The chain's performance was strong enough to make it one of the two restaurants that stood above the rest in our survey.  the other?

2. Taco Bell: For every 100 inspections, the chain averaged 62 critical violations. Indeed, Taco Bell does things differently than most of the other chains.  Its meat products are prepared at off-site, commercial kitchens, and not at the actual restaurant. The workers at a Taco Bell just heat and serve. 

3. Wendy’s: Wendy's averaged 84 critical violations and is the most improved chain compared to last year's survey. It's most common problem was improper holding temperatures. It's the same violation we saw most often in all of the surveyed restaurants.

Statistically, Wendy's, Taco Bell and Jack in the Box turned in performances that separated them from the rest of the fast food pack. The seven other chains did not perform as well in our survey and are bunched pretty closely together.

4. SUBWAY: The 'think fresh' sandwich chain averaged 98 critical violations per 100 inspections. SUBWAYs serve a variety of cold-cut sandwiches, so keeping meat at the proper holding temperature is key. But improper temperature holding was the most  frequently cited violation at the SUBWAYs in our survey. 

4. (Tie) Dairy Queen: DQ also averaged 98 critical violations for every 100 inspections.  At a DQ in Virginia, we saw a worker touching and then cooking meat, then switch to preparing ice cream without washing her hands. That's potential cross contamination of food. In fact, our survey revealed the highest percentage of  violations at DQ were cross contamination.

Half way through our list now, and the first five restaurants all averaged fewer than one critical violation per inspection.  But as we move through the bottom half of our list, the average critical violations are rising.

6. KFC: The colonel's crew rang up an average of 102 critical violations. A recurring problem was cross contamination. KFC has to be careful so raw chicken does not contaminate other food items. And there were other violations as well. A KFC in Chandler, Ariz. had eight critical in just one inspection last March. It was cited for a buildup of grime and mold on the soda nozzles and that, inspectors say, can cause bacterial growth. They were also cited for selling out of date chicken pot pies.

7. Burger King: The flame-broiled burger chain averaged 111 critical violations per 100 inspections, more than one per inspection. The Burger Kings in our survey ran up high numbers of improper holding temps and cross contamination violations. At one Burger King we saw an employee drying his wet hands on his shirt, then waiting on a customer. There was a puddle on the floor and soda nozzles caked with syrup.

8. Arby’s: For every 100 inspections, Arby's averaged 115 critical violations. The roast beef sandwich is Arby's signature item, but our survey indicates that too often, the roast beef is left sitting out too long. More than half the Arby's we surveyed had holding temp violations, and that can be dangerous.

9. Hardee’s: The chain averaged 118 critical violations per 100 inspections. It had one of the highest number of critical violations in Dateline's original survey as well. This year, Hardee’s racked up the highest number of violations for mold and grime of all the chains. One location in Virginia had seven criticals in one inspection alone, including grime and debris stuck to the soda nozzles.

10. McDonald’s: The chain averaged 126 critical violations for every 100 inspections, the highest average in our survey. McDonald's was the only chain where hand washing was the most commonly cited violation.  Either inspectors witnessed employees not washing their hands or the restaurants had inadequate handwashing facilities.

So there's our 2005 fast food Dirty Dining list. Jack in the Box and Taco Bell had the fewest average violations in our survey, Hardee’s and McDonald's the highest violation rate. The good news? Seven of the 10 chains did a little better than they did in last, averaging fewer critical violations per inspection. But keep in mind, just like last year, about two thirds of the restaurants we surveyed had at least one critical violation.

We took the results of our survey to Mary Adolf of the National Restaurant Association.

Adolf: “All of the 10 chains that were involved in your survey certainly have very sophisticated quality assurance and training programs, and I sincerely believe that they're working very diligently to make sure that those programs are implemented every single day. The training never stops.”

Click for related content Read complete restaurant responses to the report

Again, food borne illness is rare, but remember all these people in Ohio? They are still angry they became so violently ill, just because they ate at a fast food restaurant. Most of them say they won't trust fast food again.

Lea Thompson: “Can people walk into a fast food restaurant today and assume that they won't get sick?”

Adolf: “To put it in context, the fact that we serve 61 million meals every single day in quick service restaurants in over 200,000 stores, I think that record speaks for itself.”

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