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At a small restaurant in Tennessee, USA.
I don't like that they asked an LLM to graphic design the entire menu, but why in the name of robot jesus did they look at the result and say "great. Love it. Print 100 copies."
The food pictures made me physically ill. They're really upsetting! I told the Waitress, who agreed that the pics were awful, and the manager/owner(?) who didn't seem to care.
There are LLM inconsistencies all over, too, like icons changing from page to page.
Off topic I guess, but I was surprised that nobody is talking about the asterix: Eating undercooked food might make you sick. Like, yeah, that's your job to avoid? I'm assuming this is about runny egg yolks but still, is this considered normal in the US?
Yeah, it's very common on menus in the U.S. because we're a bunch of litigious assholes and weird legal disclaimers disclaimers are sprinkled around our country like magic spells to ward off the lawyers representing narcissists.
I have no idea if that little warning has ever actually been tested in court in a food-borne illness case to see if it works, though. Businesses can't always just waive customer safety liabilities away with finely-printed incantations.
Also, it doesn't make sense to have the asterisk on stuff like the biscuits and gravy, only items where the customer picks the "doneness" like eggs or steak. WTF wouldn't be fully cooked in biscuits and gravy? And if they're going to do this stupid shit, it should also be on the "country ham breakfast" that comes with "two eggs any style," since it's on all the other egg items.
It is standard for menus to have that asterisk next to food items whose doneness you get to choose. Mostly steaks and burgers.
Litigation heavy society + Governmental food safety guidelines.
Every menu in the us that has options for even slightly pink burgers, eggs, ceviche, sushi, or anything else not cooked to federal food safety minimums has that disclaimer on the menu.
We all know it, there's no reason for it other than perceived cheap lawsuit protection.
Thing is, if the food was stored negligently that message won't stop them from being liable. And if the food was stored properly, the chances of contamination are pretty damned low.
idk if that's normal in the US but it looks like a normal AI generated thingy to me. Like I've seen AI trying to tell you to be safe, consult real humans etc. quite a lot. So I assume that that's just part of it.
Then again we're talking about the country where lettuce isn't safe to eat so...
While I consider that statement normal, It is never something that is attached to every menu item.
First source I found from a search https://doh.vi.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Consumer-Advisory-for-Menus.pdf
Edit, another source with better examples https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/health/food/operators/consumer-advisory I am sure I could probably find something from the USDA or FDA ,but I already put too much effort into this.
Both your sources seem to suggest marking each applicable food item with the asterisk and having a disclaimer at the bottom, though.
I'm noticing now that the AI menu seems inconsistent in following these guidelines: No asterix for "Country Ham Breakfast" while "Pancake Combo" has one; both are served with eggs. Not to mention that I feel that the eggs themselves is what should be marked, unless undercooked pancakes and such is a thing?
I agree, very inconsistent markings. And it should be the eggs themselves.
It's a legal disclaimer so they don't get sued
If i remember correctly US has higher salmonella infection rates compared to the rest of the developed world
I can't find any comparative data on this. Did you mean in people, in chickens or in chicken products (might be all three I suppose, since eggs are a major culprit)?
I'm sure I read somewhere that it's partially due to the fact that in the US chickens are not immunised.
I found something on Wikipedia (under Prevention, Vaccine pertaining to this:
I'd assume it's not a widespread practice globally from that wording?
I think you might be right. Strange though, I remember being a kid in the 90s/00s and nibbling on food that had raw egg and I don't think I got sick. I guess my parents were just letting me rawdog it.
I'd assume the risk is low, or we wouldn't have these serving practices. I assume most chickens (and eggs) aren't contaminated with Salmonella - it's only a problem if you happen to have an undercooked one that does. I guess it helps if you feel confident your government is on top of the issue and will warn you if there's an outbreak.
Wait wtf?
Okay, I can see "runny yolk" as counting as undercooked, but a lot of those foods aren't things that should be runny.
I hope no human actually typed this crap and it's just something the AI decided to insert for ~reasons~
"Runny yolks" was just my writing, though. You can see the asterix disclaimer at the bottom of the menu - it's wording is reasonable. (I would have typed it out for you, but that's way too much effort on mobile)
I know, what I mean is, there's an asterisk on items like "biscuits and gravy"
Why the fuck are they undercooking biscuits and gravy? Do people want their biscuits done over-easy?
Oh yeah, I noticed that too. Doesn't really make sense, no.
When cooking eggs sunny side up, I ALWAYS cook them with runny yolks. That's how you retain the flavour. Been doing that forever, never a problem. Not in the USA.
Runny yolks are normal in the US too. This disclaimer exists on pretty much every menu in the US.
I think that's pretty normal outside of Salmonella outbreaks - the problem in the US being that they wouldn't necessarily know there's an outbreak in time to stop people getting exposed. You might therefore want to be careful about making it sound like a zero risk choice rather than a low risk one.
I noticed that too... that asterisk makes me feel pretty grossed out, and seems like such an ai addition to a menu.