When you go to a restaurant to eat, do you use boiling water to scald the tableware?

Guangdong people have a habit of washing the tableware with boiling water when eating out, even if it is the so-called sterilized tableware wrapped in plastic film. Friends from other places often look down on this behavior, but if you look at the "disinfection" process of the tableware below, I believe you will be stunned.

Dark Side 1

Each set of cutlery passes through at least 9 pairs of hands

At around 1:15 p.m. on August 5, the reporter walked into the packing room and saw that all the workers were not wearing gloves, hats, masks or work clothes. They were just wearing their own clothes and packing with their bare hands. The reporter asked a female worker in the packaging room. Reporter: Why didn't you wear gloves or work clothes? Didn't the factory provide them?

Worker: Yes! It’s so hot, why should I wear it? You don’t need to wear it.

Reporter: Didn’t you wear it before?

Worker: Wear it when someone comes to inspect.

During the three days of work, including the reporter and interns, a total of 9 workers in the packaging room packed the goods by hand. That is to say, before a set of tableware is delivered to the table, it has been touched by the bare hands of at least nine people.

The Dark Side 2

Pick up the chopsticks that fell on the ground and pack them directly

Many of the disinfected chopsticks are still wet and sometimes stained with dirt. The workers will pick out the dirt and broken chopsticks by hand, then straighten the chopsticks and put them on the packaging machine for packaging.

Sometimes chopsticks fall to the ground or on the edge of the packaging machine, and the workers pick them up again and package them directly without any disinfection.

Reporter: The sterilized chopsticks are full of water. Are they packaged directly without being sterilized? The chopsticks look dirty?

Worker: Yes! Chopsticks are the dirtiest.

Reporter: I saw you picked up the chopsticks that fell on the ground and packed them up. Isn't that not good?

Worker: Never mind. Just wrap it up.

Dark Part 3

Going to the workbench without washing hands

The boss never asked the reporter to wash his hands before work, and the reporter found that some workers did not wash their hands before work either. Not only do you not need to wash your hands before work, you also don't need to wash your hands after leaving work or returning to the workbench. For example, some workers went out and swept the floor with a broom, cut their hands and bled, touched dirt on the floor, wiped sweat with their hands, or tied their hair. No one asked or urged them to wash their hands, and the workers continued to work with dirty hands.

Dark Part 4

The scraps and cutlery go through the conveyor belt

During the nearly one hour of work, the reporter found that food residues and bowls and chopsticks were sent to the conveyor belt after being sterilized at high temperature, such as watermelon rinds that had turned white due to soaking in water, large pieces of wet beef, half of a corn that had been bitten, half of a white chicken foot, etc. Among them, spare ribs, clam shells, and chili peppers were the most common residues. Food residue will stick to the tableware or be mixed between the tableware. The conveyor belt that carries the food residue does not need to be cleaned regularly. When it gets dirty, just wipe it with a rag. Therefore, the stains on the conveyor belt will contaminate the tableware again and again.

Dark Five

Place the dishes and chopsticks directly on the ground after disinfection

After the workers got off work, the reporter stayed in the workshop after the workers left the packaging room and observed that some tableware that had been disinfected and placed in baskets were placed directly on the ground, with flies resting on them.

There is a restaurant behind the factory packaging room. Kitchen waste is piled at the door with flies and insects resting on it. During normal work, the windows of the packaging room are open, and these flies and insects will fly in.

Dark Six

Pick up the scraps with your bare hands and pack them with dirty hands

Faced with food residues on the conveyor belt, the workers simply took them off with their hands, threw them outside the conveyor belt, and continued to pack the tableware with their dirty hands.

The residues that are not thrown away will be sent to a basket at the end of the conveyor belt, which also contains sterilized spoons. The administrator takes the spoons out of this basket and puts them directly into the tableware for packaging.

Dark Side 7

If there are still stains after disinfection, wipe them with a rag

When packing, workers will pick out the dishes that are obviously not cleaned thoroughly and throw them into another basket, and then wash them again when they get off work. For example, tableware with pepper or large colored stains.

The administrator working next to the reporter sometimes holds a rag tightly in his hand. This rag is a little yellow and is usually placed casually next to the machine. When he saw a small stain on the tableware, he would quickly wipe it with a rag with his skillful movements, and the "beautified" tableware would just "pass" the test.

Dark Eight

Bloodstained tableware packaging passes inspection

The reporter found that many disinfected tableware still had water droplets on them, especially cups and vinegar dishes.

For some vinegar dishes that are stained with water, as long as the water is not dirty, the workers will place the vinegar dishes on the conveyor belt and knock them to remove the water droplets before continuing to pack them. However, for many cups with water drops, workers do not pick out or remove the water drops, but directly pack them.

The reporter found that there would be broken tableware, such as broken glass, on the conveyor belt, which could easily puncture the workers if they were not careful. A female worker's hand was pierced and bleeding, so she bandaged the wound with a Band-Aid placed in the packaging room and continued working.

Afterwards, the reporter found blood stains on the tableware, so the administrator wiped the blood stains with a cloth and took it out. But afterwards, there continued to be blood-stained tableware that was not discovered, so these "blood-stained" tableware were packaged and "passed".

Dark Nine

Disinfection of tableware takes only two or three seconds

At around 5 pm on August 6, after finishing a day's work, although exhausted, I still couldn't understand why there was still water on the dishes after they were disinfected.

Finally, an old employee revealed that because there were many cups and few workers, some cups were not turned upside down and were sent to the sterilization box, so some of the water was not dried. He also said that the main reason for the inadequate disinfection was that the disinfection speed was too fast. The disinfection cabinet was only about two meters long, and the entire disinfection process took only two or three seconds. The tableware came out immediately after being put in, so how could it be disinfected thoroughly?

Dark Ten

Disinfect the soaking pool water for two or three days before changing it

The undercover reporter discovered that the factory's rough washing pool was the dirtiest. The water in the pool was changed once a day, and the water became smelly in the afternoon every day, but the smelly water still had to be used to wash dishes. The water in the disinfection soaking pool is changed every three days, and if a lot of dishes are washed, it will be changed only every two days.