how do the clocks work in mcdonalds?

Question

does anyone know how the strange clocks with the red and black figures in mcdonalds work ?
is it to make sure that the burgers are only sat around for 5 or 10 minutes?
and if they are, do they just get microwaved like BK do and sent down the chute again or do they get thrown away?

Answer 1

I worked at McDonald's when i was a student, so I'll give you a sensible answer, from what I can remember! Basically there is a normal clock with a row of smaller numbers on the outside that are 10 minutes after the original number. So basically if you were on quarter past the hour (3) then you would put a tab in behind the burgers as you put them down the chute with a 3 on it. When the clock gets to 25 past (5) there is a small 3 on the outside of the clock that indicates that it is time to throw anything put in at quarter past away. There is a red and a black number for every five minutes, based on 2 1/2 minute intervals, so a black 3 at 15 minutes past and a red 3 at 17 1/5 minutes past. This means that the intervals are actually measured in 2 1/2 minutes rather than 5, meaning that a burger doesn't stay in the chute for too long.

The restaurant that I worked in had very high standards of freshness and cleanliness. Maybe not all restaurants are the same, but they are the guidelines set out by McDonald's - no burgers are kept for more than 10 minutes, if they are older than that then they get thrown away immediately. From experience, they don't normally stay in there for even 10 minutes - it's just when it's quiet, and then the kitchen staff tend to cook to order so you get fresher food anyway.

Answer 2

Mcdonalds Clock

Answer 3

Ok it works by if they make a burger that once made and put in its box and down the chute only lasts for ten minutes then the burger flipper needs to look at the clock to see the time and say for instance the minute finger is 6 and it is 3.30pm he would then need to look at the arrows and say a red was below the 6 he would need to move 2 to the left to the 8 and see what colour arrow is below there which would be red so a red 8 tag should be put behind the burger so that people know when it was made and how long it has been there and when it needs to be thrown away then when the minute finger gets to 8 ie 3.40pm and the burger hasn't been sold then they need to throw it away but i would guess that they just change the tag

Answer 4

OK. I am a current Mc Donald's employee. We do NOT, NOT, NOT reuse food. If someone makes a mistake on an ice cream cone and it has not been served we CAN put the ice cream back in the machine, but not the shakes, because then the syrup would contaminate the whole batch. As for the burgers we do NOT premake them, they haven't for years. They have holding pans for the burger meat. The burgers are only allowed to be kept in the holding pans at 140 degrees for 15 minutes. After that they are "Wasted" and put in a bin to be counted and then discarded. We do NOT microwave the meat patties. If someone does make a mistake on a burger and it is sitting in the HLZ (Where the finished sandwiches are placed for the front counter people to bag them up) they CAN serve it ONLY if it has been there less than 10 minutes. After that it is then "Wasted" and discarded. The UHC (Holding trays for the meat products) have timers on them and when the timer goes off the meat is wasted and discarded.

Answer 5

I've worked in hospitality for 20 years and if anyone thinks that McD's is any worse than the top restaurants in terms of cleanliness and hygiene, well, they've got a lot to learn.

Chefs are delicious, wonderful, creative, artistic, vibrant beings who may or may not care about hygiene. Of the ones I have met (and I've worked in some top restaurants and hotels around the globe) approximately 60% care about hygiene.

When you work in a commercial kitchen you develop very strong stomach bacteria. This stuff can kill stones, honestly. The only thing that has ever given me food poisoning was a pepperoni pizza that hadn't been refrigerated for 3 days (I didn't realise how old it was when I was eating it)...only threw up for about 2 hours and then was fine, and I still eat pizza...

The way chefs learn to cook automatically instills a sense of preservation within them. They will not serve green meat or rotten eggs or wormy fish, but they will serve it the day before it gets green, rotten or wormy (because they can tell exactly, and I mean EXACTLY (if they are any good) when that happen). I currently live with a chef. If I'm not sure about a sell by date (never read the labels, they mean diddly squat) I ask her and she smells the meat and if it smells okay, she say it's okay. It sounds scary but it's true. If it doesn't smell like decaying flesh, it's probably okay. Problem is that a lot of stuff smells like decaying flesh these days even when it is okay, so I guess the trick is to actually know what you are cooking....hmmm think about it....

McD's is fine, seriously, have you EVER heard of anyone getting food poisoning there...ever???

Answer 6

I think, well this is how it was at a dq I worked at. Its the time from when somebody places an order to the time the get it. Thats what we used for the drive-thru.

Answer 7

Some tic some tok

Answer 8

How do you know what any food outlet does, not just McS, what about the factories that package all this food for M&S, SAINBURYS ETC

Answer 9

from what i have heard about mcdonalds, they mainly re-use bugers, and fries, and apple pies, and even mcflurrys, what they do is just chuck them all back in even drinks and shakes they just throw back in the machine and get away with it, i used to work for wimpy bars, and well we used to have to scrap beans off the plate and microwave them, thats why i left i was there for a few days but that was sick and i werent getting arrested for that, i never done it i have to say i just handed the plates back to them, but i would never eat in that bar again

Answer 10

i've never seen a clock in mcdonalds