Statistically safer to eat at big-chain fast-food joints

There are about 76 million cases of food-borne illness — ranging from an upset tummy to kidney failure and death — each year in the United States, according to estimates from Centers for Disease Control.

 Of 18 big, national or regional food scares involving
everything from botulism to hepatitis to salmonella in the last 25 years only
two involved chain operations and one of those was later found to be the fault
of a supplier.
For good reason: Ever since a 1993 E. coli outbreak linked
to undercooked hamburgers at Jack in the Box killed four people, made hundreds
of others ill, and almost put the chain out of business, the industry has
invested millions of dollars to prevent anything like it from happening again.
Plus, every time there is a new scare, such as the E. coli contamination at
Taco Bell last year, they all just ramp up further.