the buffet line

There is probably nothing more disgusting than the concept of a buffet line.   People always worry about the double-dip but in this case you have people sticking their forks and hands into trays of food all while taste-testing their way to a $10 lunch..   

 

What I don't understand is that people in restaurants who are handling food are supposed to wash their hands and wear hats or hair netting except if the people handling the food are the very patrons of the restaurant.  This isnt' a big deal if you don't mind the fact that your food has the fingerprints of every other customer all over it.

 

I was standing there today, piling my plastic container to the brim and saw three different people pick something up and put it back in to a tray, now they were using the tongs but they took something from their container and put it back in, but there is still a contamination issue.    What is even more disgusting is I'm pretty sure that l the trays of hot food are kept at the ideal temperature for larvae to hatch add to that the fact that people are sneezing all over the place and you got yourself the perfect petri dish.   You want to stop the next Avian Swine-Bird Flu then the best thing you can do is close the unlimited pasta bar over at the Olive Garden. 

 

The only security the restaurants give you are with those plexiglass sneeze guards which works well if you are 5'6" and taller so i guess the assumption is that short people are less likely to sneeze on the shrimp fra diavolo or that they are less likely to say-it not spray-it so i'd avoid any restaurant of the 5"0 and under club.   

 

At the end of the day the only way to be somewhat safe is to limit yourself only to the cold stuff even if it means having to chow down on frozen mucus and snot...