'Soda Gun Snakes': The Fast Food Horror Only Employees Can Tell You About

Many of us have heard tales of health code violations at restaurants or horror stories from friends and social media about what goes on behind the scenes in professional kitchens. Even if it's just a small minority of restaurants, you know the possibility exists. One commonly told story among restaurant employees, especially in fast food, involves the dangers of soda guns and ice machines. These machines are sometimes cleaned far less often than they need to be, and the results are harrowing.

In a Reddit thread called "People Who Work in Restaurant Chains, What Should We Never Order from That Chain," the soda gun was called out more than once. "I clean the gun on my shifts because I've seen soda gun snakes," a bartender said. "Imagine a tube shaped kombucha mother. This is all a guess, but I think it's the sugar, yeast, moisture and neglect. It was horrific." What they're describing is bacteria or black mold growth so thick, it came out in a solid mass. Just to be clear, soda is not one of the moldy foods you can actually eat. Imagine someone serving you a drink from that.

A post in the same thread about how the guns were cleaned at one restaurant explained, "We dipped a glass of soda water around the nozzle for a few seconds." They were stunned when a new manager showed them how to remove the nozzles, revealing sludgy bacteria inside. Tasting Table discussed this, among other fast food items you should avoid, and it only gets worse.

Along with soda guns, ice machines are notoriously ignored. This is because it is a large, cumbersome piece of equipment, and cleaning it is not easy. If management is not diligent and staff aren't well-trained, ice machine cleaning is often one of the first tasks to be ignored. Again, from the outside, it might appear clean, but inside it can develop black mold and pink slime.

It might be nice to think this is just unfounded talk on Reddit, but it's not. There are many confirmed reports of black mold in restaurant ice machines from Georgia, California, Pennsylvania, Texas, and other states nationwide. NBC News reported on dirty ice in 2012, finding employees at restaurants using their bare hands to fill cups. ABC News once reported on a school science project that showed restaurant ice was dirtier than toilet water.

In 2023, a Listeria outbreak in Tacoma, Washington, was linked back to milkshake machines that had not been properly cleaned. Six people were hospitalized, and three died. A 2016 norovirus outbreak that affected 154 people was traced back to ice machines at a buffet. The issue of proper sanitation is a very serious one that is, unfortunately, not always treated in a serious way. These are the kinds of things you need to know before getting ice at a restaurant. If you're ever concerned about the sanitation of soda or ice, maybe consider dining elsewhere, just to be safe.