Restaurants now Over-salting foods

We all know that quantity and quality are down across the board when it comes to food.
There is something else going on.

They are over salting everything.
I think they are doing this for two reasons, to make lesser quality foods taste better and to overcompensate for the reduction in quantity.
I have been vacationing and noticed this everywhere.
I’m a super taster/smeller and can pick up things that most can’t. You know that saying about Chinese food, that you are hungry an hour later. Welp, that is going to happen at a lot of other places now too. Yes yes, eat homemade when you can, but it’s difficult to do when you aren’t home and don’t have access to want to cook.

BTW. Yes I know that restaurants have always put a lot of salt on their foods, this is in addition to that. This is more than normal.
Next time you eat out (especially at your usual places) think about it and really taste the food and let me know if you’ve noticed a difference.

a reply to: JAGStorm

Just this week I learned of three local restaurant that have closed down.
Maybe pretty soon, there won’t be any left to complain about…
Seems the ones still open are hanging on by a thread.

a reply to: JAGStorm

They also oversalt to sell more beverages.

a reply to: JAGStorm

They have always oversalted this was why foods from restaurants tasted differently than they do at home. As to your issue, well from one person to another they might be doing this since smokers often over salt their foods so that they can taste it, well people being affected by the covid also have that loss of taste issue too.

a reply to: JAGStorm

I see many home operated food services and food truck being the next wave in Seattle and other major cities soon.

Oh I know that you can't run a business out of most homes, but you can "invite" people over for dinner, and if they "leave a gift of money" well that's between you and your guest.

a reply to: JAGStorm

Give me an idea of what types of foods you’re speaking of. Meats, carbs, sides, veggies or everything in general?

What are the $-$$$$$ (1-5) dollar range for most the spots?

I definitely think it’s to mask over poorer quality food. You nailed it in your OP.

I’m disappointed every time I eat out. Ans I eat out every day…..

a reply to: KKLOCO

You don't oversalt to hide bad ingredients, you over season for that. You oversalt to please customers with tasting issues. JAGStorm is a supertaster (same here) which makes things like over seasoning, be it due to salting or really any other herbs and spices, more noticeable. Now you have all these people walking around with compromised tasting abilities forcing many restaurants to over salt in order to please their customers. If it was bad or poor ingredients, then I would expect more seasoning issues rather than just an issue of over salting.

originally posted by: Guyfriday
a reply to: KKLOCO

You don't oversalt to hide bad ingredients, you over season for that. You oversalt to please customers with tasting issues. JAGStorm is a supertaster (same here) which makes things like over seasoning, be it due to salting or really any other herbs and spices, more noticeable. Now you have all these people walking around with compromised tasting abilities forcing many restaurants to over salt in order to please their customers. If it was bad or poor ingredients, then I would expect more seasoning issues rather than just an issue of over salting.

I didn’t even think about all the Covid/Vaccine issues that could be causing people not to be able to taste things…
KKLOCO asked what types of foods, I’ve experienced it all all levels.
Fries, to steaks, to veggies. Way way too much salt. I don’t have high blood pressure so it’s not a big health issue for me but I just don’t like it over salted.

I have noticed poor quality ingredients too. There are places that I’ve gone to for decades and they have changed their recipe, obviously to save money. It’s just not worth it anymore.

I was vacationing and one place we always go for breakfast is Cracker Barrel (I know, not fine dining by any means) They have changed a lot.
Nothing on their menu tastes the same.

A fast food joint I’ve enjoyed for years Qdoba has massively changed, their meat is terrible now. Almost any place that serves Guacamole is mixing it with something and just food coloring. Lots and lots of money saving food stretching going on at these places that didn’t happen pre pandemic.

a reply to: JAGStorm

They oversalt to sell beverages. I was told this quite a while ago by a manager in the restaurant business.

Maybe Buffets.

Infact, I'd like an indepth report on that.

originally posted by: Arnie123
Maybe Buffets.

Infact, I'd like an indepth report on that.

I don’t eat at buffets but I wouldn’t be surprised if they put ingredients to make one full faster as a business model.
MSG, salt, starches etc.

I don't eat out anymore, but I did notice many of the products/brands we've used for decades are too salty to eat. Well, he can still gag them down, but I can't. Even though he has a high salt tolerance, some products are pushing it a bit too far.

Our frozen fries were so salty it was disgusting. The high-end chicken strips, same. Bean 'n' Bacon soup, even the 'low sodium' Split Pea soup-too salty.

Maybe twice a year we'd splurge on a small bag of potato chips, but no more. And don't even get me started on Spam! I grew up on Spam, and every couple of years I get a hankering for a Spam sandwich, despite being so salty. I opened the can, made my sandwich, took a bite and spit it out! It was like a mouth full of straight salt!


It's getting to be a pretty long list of foods we won't be buying again; maybe that's the point? To wean us off of having such a vast amount of choices?

a reply to: nugget1

I grew up on spam and I have to share this story….

I bought one from the Asian grocery and not the American grocery store like I normally do. (I get the reduced sodium)

Well I opened the can and started cutting it and BAM………….

The smell.. (again remember I’m a super smeller)

Smelled exactly like an old man smell. I know that pigs and humans aren’t that far off, but this can… Lord have Mercy.

PS. I’m 999.9999% I can smell Parkinsons on people too. My dad had it and it has a distinct smell, so now when I’m out I can smell it on certain people. I don’t say anything because that would be a weird convo.

a reply to: JAGStorm

Personally...any amount of salt is over-salting...I hate it!

I can't stand salty stuff...chips, fries, sunflower seeds...it's all way too salty!

I know that's not the norm by any measure...so it's just my opinion!

a reply to: JAGStorm

The over-salting is a definite thing. I don't really eat salt at home, but almost everything prepared elsewhere is salty as heck these days, it seems.

I have noticed it may also be over-peppering going on (with black pepper), in addition to the added salt.

I only notice this because -- although I love the taste of black pepper -- if I eat it, I have some problems within a number of hours after that have been unpleasant enough to cause me to avoid black pepper, very unfortunately.

The hospital cafeteria where I work now even puts black pepper in their cooked vegetables. They don't over-salt because they are a hospital, but it seems all places big and small are stretching their ingredients, and over-spicing to make up for it perhaps?

I ordered a nice steak out, and it was completely dusted on the outside with black pepper, and I had to cut all the outside off to eat it, like peeling a potato. That is kind of annoying.

It's been a few years since I ate at a place called Jack's burgers, I had picked up a double cheeseburger as I was on my way to sit with my mom for the weekend. It was so oversalted that I could barely finish it and had to drink a lot of water just to get the salty taste out of my mouth. This was during the scamdemic and I wondered if the meat had gone bad and they oversalted it to hide the taste. Since I had the covids, my taste buds have been off and my sense of smell is actually stronger, which isn't always a good thing.

originally posted by: Chuckles55
It's been a few years since I ate at a place called Jack's burgers, I had picked up a double cheeseburger as I was on my way to sit with my mom for the weekend. It was so oversalted that I could barely finish it and had to drink a lot of water just to get the salty taste out of my mouth. This was during the scamdemic and I wondered if the meat had gone bad and they oversalted it to hide the taste. Since I had the covids, my taste buds have been off and my sense of smell is actually stronger, which isn't always a good thing.

Yes places are stretching food longer than usual too.
I can smell it.

SPAM

SPAM

a reply to: JAGStorm

PS. I’m 999.9999% I can smell Parkinsons on people too. My dad had it and it has a distinct smell, so now when I’m out I can smell it on certain people. I don’t say anything because that would be a weird convo.

I'm a believer, and there are a lot more out there like us. It's a known fact that certain illnesses change not just our body chemistry, but also our body odor, with each have a key signature.

Once you smell a certain kind of cancer, you never forget the smell-at least, not if you're a super smeller.

a reply to: nugget1

I'm a believer, and there are a lot more out there like us. It's a known fact that certain illnesses change not just our body chemistry, but also our body odor, with each have a key signature. Once you smell a certain kind of cancer, you never forget the smell-at least, not if you're a super smeller.

Yup my mom had cancer and I could smell it too. I also knew when she was going to die because I could smell a very distinct change in her smell, it wasn’t a bad smell, just different. I asked the hospice nurse about it and she said yes their body starts to shut down and excrete something.