r/science • u/eastbayted • 2d ago

Health Sick food service workers remain top driver of viral foodborne outbreaks in US

https://www.healio.com/news/gastroenterology/20250331/sick-food-service-workers-remain-top-driver-of-viral-foodborne-outbreaks-in-us
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u/Area51_Spurs 2d ago

I got terrible food poisoning from a place I probably spent a hundred bucks a week at. Stopped going there.

It’s dumb af when they do that. Costs them more in lost business than just paying out sick days.

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u/worldspawn00 2d ago

It also costs productivity because they're probably getting other employees sick too.

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u/Mogling 2d ago

Food poisoning has little to do with sick employees unless they have a few specific illnesses caused by food poisoning.

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u/Area51_Spurs 1d ago

I’m not saying I got the food poisoning from a sick employee.

I’m saying if I get food poisoning somewhere it’s pretty likely they’re the same type of place that has sick people work.

A place who had sick people work also probably isn’t properly managing that kitchen.

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u/Mogling 1d ago

I would disagree here. Even at good places employees work sick because of the way the industry is set up. A server could make $200 on a busy shift at a decent restaurant, more at a nicer one. If they only get 7.25/he in sick pay, they are incentiveised to hide being sick and work. Those same places will do very well on health inspections. I've seen it at luxury hotel restaurants and celebrity chef restaurants. I've seen super well cleaned and organized kitchens where "French Overtime" was common, you think they wouldn't let someone sick work? So it's not like the BoH is immune from these problems either. I've also seen places that will close half the dining room and limit covers because they are running short staffed due to sickness, but not many owners are going to be happy with that. It's a complicated issue, that is industry wide. COVID changed some things, but people quickly slipped back into their old ways.

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u/Area51_Spurs 1d ago

Ignorance is bliss. If I don’t know something is happening it doesn’t matter. Which is my point.