The McDonald's Sweet Treat Employees Avoid Like The Plague

What you don't know doesn't hurt — that's the philosophy many of us embrace when it comes to our favorite fast food places. Sometimes, though, a little twinge of doubt creeps in. Is there anything that we really shouldn't be ordering? In a viral Reddit post, one McDonald's employee shared the shocking revelation that the restaurant's shakes are among the items to avoid ordering at McDonald's due to their poor cleaning regimen.

Apparently, the shake machine is not deep-cleaned every single day. "It is cleaned bi-weekly and every night it just heats up the milk contents so that it kills off the bacteria in the milk. The nozzles are not cleaned properly, nor are the dispensers, save for the bi-weekly cleanings," the employee said. This results in a thick buildup forming in the machine, which the person says is "a pain in the a** to remove, and crusty." The initial comment was first shared all the way back in 2014, so it would be fair to expect that McDonald's has updated the cleaning regimen in the decade since. Unfortunately, though, it hasn't.

A different Reddit post, this one from 2023, shows a repulsively dirty shake machine, alongside a claim that it hasn't been cleaned in over six weeks. "A few weeks ago I had found a maggot underneath it and it smells like rot," the employee wrote. "I'm just amazed that we're continuing this s***, I've been lying and saying it's down, but other people have been openly selling it or making it for customers."

There are two types of treatments the shake machine goes through to ensure food safety. First is the automatic heating cycle, which happens every single day. The machine heats up the shake mixture to a temperature that kills off the bacteria, which is 155 degrees Fahrenheit, according to one Quora comment. This takes a few hours to complete, during which the shake machine is out of business; that's why the cycle is mostly run at night or in the early morning hours.

Ironically enough, the daily heat treatment causes milk buildup on the machine over time. That's why every two weeks, a deep clean is scheduled. The entire machine gets taken apart during that process, and regular employees usually aren't qualified for that. There's also some disagreement in Reddit threads about whether the deep clean can be delayed. Some locations are clearly able to skip it, leading to several weeks without a proper clean. Others claim the machine at their location is equipped with a 14-day timer, automatically locking up when the timer runs out. Some have noted, however, that this feature can be bypassed. In other words, it totally depends on individual locations whether they're actually following the cleaning protocol — one that's already a bit sketchy to begin with. The next time you're craving something sweet at Mickey D's, it's better to just pick a different McDonald's dessert.