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These 8 Restaurant Chains Have the Worst Food Safety Records in America

From insect bites to missing fingers, some of these get really wild.

By Cassandra Yorgey

Edited by Amanda Machado

Updated Nov. 24, 2025

If you're already stretching your dining budget the last thing you want is to spend your hard-earned money on food from a dirty restaurant. Unfortunately, the restaurant industry is rife with lawsuits and ongoing hygiene controversies, highlighting persistent challenges in maintaining consistent cleanliness and food safety.

Discover which restaurant chains have a reputation for unhygienic conditions, and consider the consequences before placing your order.

Editor's note: Conditions for each location depend heavily on the employees, and isolated incidents are entirely possible without impacting the rest of the chain.

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Longhorn Steakhouse

An Alabama resident sued the steakhouse chain this year after being bitten inside the mouth by a cockroach that was in his food (inside his mouth). The restaurant reopened its doors later after passing inspection.

Still, that is the worst of the violations. Plus, locations in Manassas, Virginia, and Fort Wayne, Indiana, also failed inspections this year. If you're craving steak, it might be best to dine elsewhere for now.

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Chipotle

Have you ever been to a Chipotle and realized all the tables are dirty? The popular Mexican chain has a history of health violations, including a large criminal lawsuit dating back to 2015 and 2018 relating to food-borne illness outbreaks.

A Chipotle in Pensacola, Florida, was temporarily closed after an inspection found rodent droppings along with other clear signs of rodent activity. The location was also in violation of proper dish sanitization and temperature control on chilled items. Another in Ocala was shut down due to live cockroach activity, so if you're in Florida, maybe skip the Chipotles.

McDonald's

The McDonald's cleanliness experience can vary widely between locations, but this year brought an E. coli outbreak to the chain via one of its suppliers, Taylor Farms. McDonald's seems to have stopped sourcing from Taylor Farms' Colorado Springs facility.

But according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there were 104 cases related to the outbreak, which included 34 hospitalizations and one death. Additionally, the FDA inspectors reported extensive biofilm buildup on the equipment, which led to cross-contamination.

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Taco Bell

Columbia, Missouri, inspected five Taco Bell locations this fall, and more than half of them had violations. Locations in Ohio, Georgia, and other states also had repeated violations, and there is even a legal office looking for food poisoning cases that could be eligible for a lawsuit against the fast food chain.

Texas Roadhouse

The Louisiana Department of Health included Texas Roadhouse as one of the top eight restaurants with the most critical violations in 2021. Out of 11 total violations, six were critical and included improper sanitization after raw meat, food stored without a timestamp for use, and employees eating and drinking in food prep areas.

The Cheesecake Factory

What are the odds that forced labor and human trafficking victims are following health codes? Those are the criminal charges The Cheesecake Factory is facing in Pennsylvania this year.

The chain restaurant is accused of recruiting undocumented workers and then forcing them to work unpaid and without bathroom or meal breaks, often while sick or under extreme conditions. That is not the kind of employee situation that leads to clean restaurants and appropriate food safety standards.

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Chopt

How badly can a restaurant focused on salads botch food safety? You can count the answer on two fingers, one of which was found in a customer's salad. In 2023, the chain restaurant lost a chopped-off finger and served the food anyway, without ever filing the incident with the state health officials as required by law.

The $900 fine doesn't seem like a particularly high deterrent. In 2024, Chopt was again taken to court, but this time it was over an E. coli infection.

Wendy's

Wendy's shelled out over $4.7 million in 39 lawsuits across five states for serving E. coli to customers in 2022, and it's taken until this year for the court cases to be settled. Prominent cases highlighted numerous health code violations at locations that contributed to the outbreak. Definitely a spot you'll want to think twice about before grabbing your next chicken sandwich or burger.

Bottom line

There's a reason we have regulations around food health and safety, and ignoring regulations or enforcement can have catastrophic consequences to the public. You might skip eating out to avoid wasting money, but the reality is skipping some of the restaurants on this list may also be a way to keep you healthier.

Consider checking the news and social media before you order takeout from local restaurants, and keep up to date with food-safety lawsuits happening across the country to avoid getting exposed.

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