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Have you ever wondered why every restaurant has to post a sign in the bathroom stating that “Employees must wash hands”? It seems like common knowledge. And it’s pretty disgusting to imagine that anyone would refrain from washing their hands, especially those working with food. But as it turns out, a concerning amount of people don’t understand basic hygiene.

We took a trip to the “This Is Why I Don’t Do Potlucks” Facebook group and gathered some of their most traumatizing photos below. I’ll warn you right now, pandas, that you probably don’t want to eat lunch while viewing this list. And you might never be able to enjoy food from another person’s kitchen again after viewing these images. But if you have a strong stomach, scroll away! And keep reading to find a conversation with the group’s creator, Sarah Slabodnik.

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For me, potlucks have a positive connotation. I associate them with celebrating holidays at school or in the workplace, gathering with friends and family, and having the opportunity to share a delicious treat with loved ones. But I have to admit, I have developed a new fear of them after visiting This Is Why I Don’t Do Potlucks.

This group has been around since 2020 and has blossomed into an impressively large community. The group is also quite active, as it’s constantly receiving new submissions and gaining new members, which means there’s no shortage of questionable behavior taking place in people’s kitchens. From cats sitting on salads to mold hanging out in people’s fridges, be prepared to be grossed out!

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To find out more about this stomach-churning group and find out what they’ve been up to since we last featured them on Bored Panda, we got in touch with the group’s creator and admin, Sarah Slabodnik. She was kind enough to have a chat with us and provide an update on how the community has been doing over the past couple of years.

“Our group has been going well. We’re almost at 200k members now, and we continue to get dozens of requests from people who want to join our group on a daily basis,” Sarah says. “We get at least fifty posts submitted every day. The group’s engagement level is great, and we love that so many people are commenting on the posts.”

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We also wanted to know if the content in the group has changed at all over time. “I’ve noticed within the past year that a lot of people who work in the field of food safety have joined,” Sarah shared. “They offer a lot of good information in the comments and have settled an argument or two as well.”

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Sarah also says the group’s busiest time of the year is definitely around American Thanksgiving. “We go from getting dozens of posts submitted every day to around one hundred a day,” she noted. “Lots of people are posting their food on social media, visiting family or friend’s homes and sneaking in a quick picture or recalling potlucks of Thanksgivings past and sharing their horror stories.”

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But running a group like this certainly isn’t easy on the stomach. “I definitely have trust issues with food,” Sarah told Bored Panda. “When I do eat at other people’s homes, I always offer to help with preparing the food or cleaning. That way I can see their kitchen before I commit to eating anything.”

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These disgusting moments don’t only happen at potlucks, though.

“I was at a buffet once and saw a child sneeze on the lasagna tray, spraying germs everywhere,” Sarah shared. “I told one of the staff what happened right away, so they could dispose of the lasagna and clean the area.”

“I watched that tray like a hawk for half an hour, and not one of the staff touched it. I found a different staff member and reported it again, and around five minutes later they removed the tray,” she continued. “For all I know, they were just keeping it in the back until I left, so they could put it back out again.”

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So is there anything we can do to make sure food safety and hygiene become common sense?

“When I worked in developmental services, we had to take a food safety certification course and update that training every couple of years. I think that it would be good if they made food safety a mandatory one or two day course in high school,” Sarah says. “Teach them good habits while they’re young.”

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But sometimes, we just have to take matters into our own hands.

“I have a dear friend who absolutely refuses to wash her cucumbers before using them,” Sarah added. “Her reasoning is if it comes in packaging, that must mean it’s been pre-washed. Finally, one day she told me if it was so important to me, I could wash them myself. So now, whenever I eat at her house, I always make sure the cucumber(s) get washed.”

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Are you feeling traumatized by these unappetizing photos, pandas? We don’t mean to scare you, but it’s probably wise to think long and hard before eating any potluck food in the future! Keep upvoting the pics that give you the heebie-jeebies, and let us know in the comments below what the worst food you’ve ever seen shared at a social gathering was. Then, if you’d like to check out another article from Bored Panda featuring the same Facebook group, look no further than right here!