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Does this mean that the ice cream machines at other places are just happily dispensing unsafe food?

by gknoy 5y ago

sandworm101 5y ago
No. It means that they just open up and clean the machine each day, just like every other appliance that touches food. The MD machine was designed to run without daily cleaning.
- JeremyNT 5y ago
  > No. It means that they just open up and clean the machine each day, just like every other appliance that touches food. Maybe on paper, but having worked in jobs that required the routine cleaning of things, I can state with certainty that said things were often either 1) not actually cleaned or 2) not properly cleaned.
- registeredcorn 5y ago
  I'm sorry, I'm not quite following: Employees do clean these machines every day, but because of how it's designed they don't need to do so? Is this something kind of like: I can change my motor oil every 500 miles my car is driven, but according to the manufacturer I don't need to do so that often?
  - rrrrrrrrrrrryan 5y ago
    No, the McDonald's machines heat up any leftover milkshake mixture every night to kill all the bacteria in it, then cool it all back down before the morning. If it hasn't been run in the last 24 hours, the machine will refuse to dispense ice cream unless you run the process (which takes a few hours). Non-McDonald's machines work how your imagining: you have to toss the leftover ice cream once it goes bad, disassemble the machine and clean it by hand, then load new ice cream into it.
  - joezydeco 5y ago
    Old machines: The oil is good for 500 miles. It needs to be flushed and replaced every 500 miles. New machines: There's an active oil filter in the car that needs to be turned on every 500 miles. The oil and filter need to be replaced every 5000. The filtering can be done overnight in your garage while you sleep, but if you don't do it before 500 miles the car will shut down until you do.
  - sandworm101 5y ago
    By "cleaning" I mean opening it up, unscrewing things, and cleaning the internal mechanisms of the machine to remove any leftover ice cream before it goes bad.
joezydeco 5y ago
I worked for McDonald's in my teenaged years and saw the inspection report on one of the old-style machines. It was pretty horrible. The self-cleaning machine was created for a reason. Unlike the fryers and grills the soft-serve machine is filled with dairy product, loaded by hand via human interaction, and just hovering underneath the safe zone temperature-wise.

Does this mean that the ice cream machines at other places are just happily dispensing unsafe food?

by gknoy 5y ago

Does this mean that the ice cream machines at other places are just happily dispensing unsafe food?

No. It means that they just open up and clean the machine each day, just like every other appliance that touches food. The MD machine was designed to run without daily cleaning.

JeremyNT 5y ago
> No. It means that they just open up and clean the machine each day, just like every other appliance that touches food. Maybe on paper, but having worked in jobs that required the routine cleaning of things, I can state with certainty that said things were often either 1) not actually cleaned or 2) not properly cleaned.
registeredcorn 5y ago
I'm sorry, I'm not quite following: Employees do clean these machines every day, but because of how it's designed they don't need to do so? Is this something kind of like: I can change my motor oil every 500 miles my car is driven, but according to the manufacturer I don't need to do so that often?
- rrrrrrrrrrrryan 5y ago
  No, the McDonald's machines heat up any leftover milkshake mixture every night to kill all the bacteria in it, then cool it all back down before the morning. If it hasn't been run in the last 24 hours, the machine will refuse to dispense ice cream unless you run the process (which takes a few hours). Non-McDonald's machines work how your imagining: you have to toss the leftover ice cream once it goes bad, disassemble the machine and clean it by hand, then load new ice cream into it.
- joezydeco 5y ago
  Old machines: The oil is good for 500 miles. It needs to be flushed and replaced every 500 miles. New machines: There's an active oil filter in the car that needs to be turned on every 500 miles. The oil and filter need to be replaced every 5000. The filtering can be done overnight in your garage while you sleep, but if you don't do it before 500 miles the car will shut down until you do.
- sandworm101 5y ago
  By "cleaning" I mean opening it up, unscrewing things, and cleaning the internal mechanisms of the machine to remove any leftover ice cream before it goes bad.

joezydeco 5y ago

I worked for McDonald's in my teenaged years and saw the inspection report on one of the old-style machines. It was pretty horrible. The self-cleaning machine was created for a reason. Unlike the fryers and grills the soft-serve machine is filled with dairy product, loaded by hand via human interaction, and just hovering underneath the safe zone temperature-wise.