This is an archived article and the information in the story may be outdated. Please check the time stamp on the story to see when it was updated last.
We all know that fast food is unhealthy – just about everything on the menu is full of saturated fats and high in carbs, sugar and calories. But it’s not just the foods you can order that are bad for you – there is something else you can get at a fast food restaurant that can harm your health: the condiments.
Ketchup on its own is pretty bad for you. It is loaded with high fructose corn syrup that can raise your blood pressure and ultimately lead to weight gain. But there's another reason why you should stop using the condiments from fast food restaurants.
You've probably noticed that condiments come in packets at fast food chains. You can grab ketchup packets, mustard packets - even mayonnaise packets to top your foods. While this might be a more hygeinic solution to shared condiment distributors, there's a scary reason why these packets can be bad for you.
It is pretty likely that the condiment packets you're using from fast food restaurants are already expired. These packets come in a box labeled with the expiration date, meaning there is no way to know if the condiments are expired just from looking at the individual packets.
Most condiments only last a year before they expire. Ketchup can last for about 7 months, mayonnaise for 8 months, and mustard, hot sauce, barbecue sauce and tabasco sauce each have about 9 months before they expire. This means that the condiment packets you grab from a fast food restaurant are very likely past their expiration date.
