‘A lot of stuff was obvious like soft serve ice cream and anything from a soda fountain (because the nozzles on both don’t always get cleaned that well). ‘Some stuff made sense but wasn’t obvious until I read it, like don’t get slices of pizza (because they have been sitting out) and when getting a whole pizza ask for it unsliced (because the pizza cutter only gets washed at the end of the day and sits on the counter going thru every pizza).’
A fellow user agreed, saying: ‘Work at a pizza restaurant currently and can 100% confirm our slices sit out all day (8+ hours) and are only heated up with toppings when ordered. The slicer is also not washed until the very end of the day like your dad was told. I always thought it was rather unsanitary but a hospital warning you about kind of puts it all in perspective.’
However many Reddit users who have worked at various pizza stores disputed the claim, saying they went to a lot of effort to make sure their cutting utensils were regularly cleaned.
‘When I worked at Pizza Hut we actually did a pretty good job of washing our blade probably every 15-30 minutes depending on how busy we were,’ said one user. ‘And I always kept an extra blade clean for vegetarian pizzas or anchovies pizzas.’
Added another: ‘I worked at 2 different pizza places, the pizza cutters were washed every hour, or immediately if it was a unique kind of pizza as not to mix and flavours (say BBQ chicken pizza or something like that) there are also multiple cutters, not just one or two sitting out all day.
‘I assume this is common, if your pizza place is good and the people take pride in their pizza I wouldn't worry, but if its a chain pizza place i would be more skeptical.’
Many users who commented on the post suggested that customers should ask for a ‘clean cut’ due to allergies, which would mean that workers would have to use all clean utensils. Or, as some doctors suggest, just cut them at home!
