40 Subway Facts Sandwich Artists Probably Don’t Want Us To Know

You can’t beat a nice Subway sandwich, right? They’re absolutely delicious. But your opinion of the restaurant and its food may well change after reading these 40 juicy secrets. Should you know about them? Probably not. And yet that hasn’t stopped certain workers from spilling the proverbial beans. So, from shocking claims about the cheese to consumer hacks, here is everything you didn’t know about your favorite fast food chain.

40. The Tuna Situation

Are you a fan of the tuna sandwiches at Subway? Well, you might want to turn away after reading this shocking claim. According to an alleged former employee in the comments section of a BuzzFeed article, the tasty fish arrives at the restaurant in a pre-packaged container. After that, it’s subsequently covered in mayonnaise – actually, drowned is probably a better description!

39. Cold Chicken

The next time you order a chicken sub, keep this in mind. An apparent Subway worker on Reddit claimed that unless the meat’s being stored inside a “hot well” with the meatballs, there’s a good chance it’ll be stone cold. In most cases, it doesn’t get thoroughly defrosted beforehand! So, just make a request for the filling to be placed in the microwave.

38. You Can Create Subway Pizzas

Yep, you’re reading that correctly. An alleged former member of staff dropped this particular bombshell on Reddit. According to them, you need to order a flatbread coated in the sauce that soaks Subway’s meatballs. Then list off your favored toppings ahead of toasting the base. In their mind, the results wouldn’t look out of place at a professional pizzeria!

37. The “Heart Healthy” Sub

To explain this next secret, an ex-Subway worker named Alexandra Deary opened up on BuzzFeed. She wrote, “All of the sandwiches touted as ‘healthy’ options are calculated as Meat, Bread, Lettuce, Tomato, Onion [and] Pickle. So, when you order a ‘heart healthy’ sub, it’s only considered healthy or low fat with that exact combo. If you add [anything else], you’d be better off ordering a Big Mac, calorie wise.”

36. The Tomato Problem

Tomatoes are undeniably delicious, yet from this supposed ex-worker’s perspective, you should go out of your way to avoid them at Subway. In a comment on BuzzFeed, they wrote, “We’d keep our tomatoes in the cardboard box they came delivered to us in. The ones at the very bottom would go moldy quickly, but we were told to leave them there and just use the ones at the top without washing them.” Yikes!

35. The Shelf Life Of Chicken Teriyaki

If you were to guess how long chicken teriyaki is good for, what would you say? Well, as per an alleged Subway employee on Reddit, the answer is two days. Shockingly, though, the restaurant opts to keep it out for four days in total from their experience. As a result of that, the meat “can get a little stinky.” Hmm, we’ve suddenly lost our appetite!

34. There Are Only Two Kinds Of Bread

This claim might just blow your mind, so we’d advise you to take a seat. Someone claiming to be a former member of staff at Subway said on Reddit that the chain only has two types of bread available – wheat and white. The other breads on the menu are merely variations of them, with garnishes sprinkled on top. Who knew?

33. That Might Not Be Light Mayo

Do you ask for light mayo on your Subway sandwiches? Well, you should probably hear what one-time worker Stefan Armitage had to say on the Viral Thread website. He said, “Most of the time, whenever the light mayo bottle ran out, my manager would just tell me to fill it with regular mayonnaise. And this is pretty common in a lot of stores.”

32. Prep Work And Gloves

Unsurprisingly, Subway staff don gloves when they’re putting your sandwiches together. But according to someone who said they were a former worker on Reddit, staffers just used their bare mitts as they prepped the ingredients beforehand. The user described it as a “dirty secret.” No kidding! If anything, that’s an understatement.

31. Selling Stale Bread

It goes without saying that bread can make or break a sandwich. Get that part wrong, and the whole thing goes to pot. Surely, you don’t have to worry about that at Subway, though? Well, not quite. Someone claiming to be an ex staffer said on BuzzFeed’s comment section that their higher-ups didn’t want any fresh subs cooked until everything was sold. Even the stale stuff! Yeesh.

30. Dirty Sauce Bottles

If you’re big on condiments at Subway, this claim could put you off for life. So, don’t say we didn’t warn you! A person saying they were a former worker wrote on Reddit, “The sauce and dressing bottles never get washed – only refilled. The bottom of the bottle scares me. Bottles at my store got replaced with new ones once every six months.”

29. The Onion Trick

To shed some light on this next tidbit, an apparent Subway employee informed Reddit, “If you like onions and hot sandwiches, ask [the workers] to put the onions on the sandwich before toasting. [But] ask them to pour a little olive oil over them first.” That sounds delicious, wouldn’t you agree?

28. “Fresh” Meatballs

Subway’s meatballs are very tasty in sandwiches, yet a person alleging that they were a member of staff shared some concerning advice online. According to them, you need to inquire about the freshness of the filling if you go into the restaurant when it first opens. Should the worker “check” them and give you a green-light, that’s a bad sign. Anything other than an immediate “yes” apparently means the meat isn’t in the greatest condition!

27. The Cutting Boards Are Filthy

Of all the utensils in Subway, you’d think the cutting boards would be regularly scrubbed, right? Not according to an apparent worker on Reddit. From their experience, the surface receives just a couple of proper washes each month. We can only imagine how dirty it must get between times! Talk about stomach-churning.

26. Subway Employees Can’t Get Rid Of The Smell

Like most fast food chains, Subway restaurants have a very distinctive scent. But following their time there, this supposed ex-staff member revealed that it clings to everything. In a comment on BuzzFeed, they wrote, “I had to wear a specific bra when I worked, because I couldn’t get the bread smell out – even after washing it numerous times.”

25. Everything Is Frozen

How about this for a revelation? An apparent one-time Subway worker posting on Reddit wrote, “Nothing was fresh, everything was frozen. Even the lettuce was pre-cut in a bag in the freezer. The meat: same deal. The bread was in little frozen dough balls. I don’t understand how they can say ‘eat fresh.’” Gordon Ramsay would hate it!

24. The Soup Situation

Fancy giving Subway’s soup a try? Well, someone claiming to be an employee at the chain urged a degree of caution on that front. Posting on BuzzFeed, they noted that the broth is kept out for hours – it isn’t switched with fresher batches. In fact, the old stuff could even be warmed up again at the start of a new day. We’d probably stick with the sandwiches for now.

23. You Can Get A Free Sandwich

Nope, that’s not a typo. As per someone claiming to be a Subway worker online, customers can get their hands on freebies at the restaurant. To do that, though, you need to be a little dishonest. They stated that if you pull a few unhappy faces while your food’s getting prepared, you can return soon after and say “it’s not right.” In most cases, you’ll then get another one free of charge.

22. Don’t Ask How The Chicken Breast Is Made

Subway’s chicken breast sandwiches might look nice, yet a supposed ex-employee made a startling point on Reddit. They recalled, “At the beginning of the day we’re told to get [the breasts] out of the freezer and put them into hot water, where they remain all day. Then you have to take them out and squeeze the gross chicken water out of them. Then we put them in a plastic container where they await the same treatment the next day.” Yuck!

21. You Can Ask For Frozen Cookie Dough

We don’t know about you, but we love Subway’s cookies. They’re the perfect follow-up to a delicious sandwich. Anyway, a person who said they were a worker at the chain claimed that you could also inquire about getting a portion of frozen dough from the back. After all, the snacks aren’t freshly prepared when they first arrive at the restaurant. Worth a go, right?

20. The Flatbread Secret

Looking to get more bang for your buck at Subway? Then this secret is right up your street. An employee told Viral Thread, “The way flatbread is made and prepared means it actually measures 14 inches in length. This does result in more calories [than a footlong], but if you’re just after a monster meal, go flat!”

19. Yoga Mat Chemicals

As it turns out, Subway sandwiches once shared more in common with yoga mats than you’d first expect. The chain used to add azodicarbonamide to its bread – a “dough conditioner” and “bleaching agent” you’d find in the aforementioned material. Unsurprisingly, people weren’t happy when this came to light, so from 2014 onwards, CNN reported that the compound was gradually ditched.

18. Footlongs Aren’t Always Exact

When you ask for a footlong sandwich at Subway, you expect it to be... well, a foot long. But that isn’t always the case. You see, a worker at the chain informed Reddit that after the bread thaws out, it needs to be pulled into shape in the oven. There’s no tape measure involved! Due to that, not all of the subs come out at 12 inches.

17. Swerve The Turkey

It goes without saying that you don’t have to wait until Thanksgiving or Christmas to enjoy a bit of turkey. Yet this secret could put you off ordering the meat at Subway ever again. Speaking to the website Leak Forums, a staff member alleged, “The turkey [here] is 60 percent turkey, the rest being chicken and turkey flavoring.” Oh boy.

16. Tricking Health Inspectors

Honesty is the best policy, right? Especially when it comes to food. Mind you, a former Subway employee made a shocking claim in a comment on BuzzFeed. They wrote, “Pretty much all of the logs that were meant to be turned over to the health inspector were fake. If it said food was stored at a certain temperature, that was a lie. It was never checked.”

15. Bugs In Veggie Bags

Be honest with us here: who doesn’t feel a little queasy at the thought of insects crawling over their food? It’s disgusting, and this claim is sure to test your stomach. According to an ex-Subway worker online, dead critters often turned up in the veggie bags delivered to their store.

14. There’s A Sandwich Filling Quota

The next time you go to Subway, keep your eye on the quantity of food being dropped into your sandwich. As Alexandra Deary said on BuzzFeed, “There’s a very strict amount of each item you can put on a sub. For most of the deli subs, each 6-inch could have three slices of meat, two slices of cheese, three tomatoes, cucumbers, pickles, banana peppers, onions and olives.”

13. The Steak Come In Blocks

Have you ever tried the steak filling at Subway? If not, something tells us you’ll be purposefully avoiding it from now on. Yes, a TikTok user shared a video of himself working at the chain, and he came across a solid block of the meat. He needed to break it up using his gloved hands. To be blunt, it looked awful!

12. Be Wary Of The Lettuce

At first glance, the lettuce in your Subway sandwich should appear fairly normal. But if you take a closer look, you might be in for a shock. An alleged ex-worker went on BuzzFeed to claim that their store often mixed “fresh” helpings with discolored, aging leaves. That way, they were able to shift the latter right under customers’ noses.

11. Some Of The Meat Must Be Toasted

Ever wondered why Subway employees are so insistent on toasting certain sandwiches? To answer that, an individual claiming to be a staff member wrote a message on Reddit. They said, “Some meats need to be toasted for safety reasons. Chicken, depending on whether or not [it’s] served heated already, bacon, steak and pastrami all need to be heated.”

10. You Can Ask For Grilled Cheese

Nope, we aren’t pulling your leg. It might not be on the menu, but grilled cheese sandwiches can be ordered at Subway. On Reddit, an apparent worker said, “The ‘grilled cheese’ is literally just extra cheese on bread and toasted. We just charge people for the bread and the extra cheese, so a six-inch grilled cheese would end up being somewhere around $2.” Not bad!

9. Trimming Mold

At the very least, you expect the produce in your Subway sandwiches to be as fresh as possible. Mold should be the furthest thing from your mind. Yet according to a supposed one-time employee at the chain, their higher-ups encouraged them to trim any nasty patches on the vegetables. They’d then be dished up after that. Bleurgh.

8. The $5 Footlong Promotion Pushed Staff To The Limit

To say that Subway’s $5 footlong scheme was a phenomenon would be an understatement! The promotion was hugely successful following its 2008 launch, but it pushed staff to the absolute limit. According to Business Insider writer Heather Taylor – who was employed at the chain during that time – shifts were extended to deal with the flow of hungry arrivals. In the end, the popular promo ended in 2016.

7. Broken Cookies

Most jobs out there have the odd perk or two, and Subway’s no different. An individual claiming to be an ex-employee said on BuzzFeed that their store allowed workers to nab “broken cookies” from the display at the end of each day for free. And it’s fair to say that they took full advantage of that!

6. The Soda Machines May Not Be Clean

Do you always grab a cold drink from Subway? Well, listen up. An alleged former worker wrote on BuzzFeed’s comment section, “The ice and soda machines were never cleaned thoroughly, and large chunks of mold and non-identifiable goo were always spilling out from it. I stopped drinking from it soon after [I realized], and I refuse to consume anything from those types of machines now.”

5. Bouncy Cheese

There’s just something about the cheese at Subway that perfectly rounds off the sandwiches – it compliments almost anything! Then again, if you always opt for the American variety, this apparent employee on BuzzFeed has some words for you. Yes, they claimed the slices would “literally bounce” on the ground.

4. You Can Microwave Your Cookies

Of all the secrets Subway has to offer, this is by far the tastiest. A member of staff informed Viral Thread, “You want to taste pure heaven? Simply ask the person behind the counter to microwave your cookie for five-to-ten seconds so it goes lusciously gooey. Seriously, thank me later.” We will!

3. The Bread Is Full Of Sugar

How about this for a surprise? According to someone claiming to be an employee on BuzzFeed’s comment section, you could say that the chain’s bread is actually closer to a type of pastry. Why? Well, each sub is said to be loaded with sugar. That’s not something you want to hear if you regularly eat at the restaurant!

2. “Grilled” Chicken

Sometimes looks can be deceiving, but Subway takes this to another level when it comes to its grilled chicken. Now, if you examine these pieces in the store, they’ll appear fairly normal. From an alleged ex-worker’s perspective on Reddit, though, that’s definitely not the case. They claimed that the BBQ lines are just helpings of food dye!

1. None Of The Cheese Is Real

This next secret is a real game-changer, so strap in people. An apparent Subway employee on Reddit claimed, “Subway cheese is not actually cheese! It’s a solidified cheese ‘spread’ which, if left in water for a period of time, loses all of its artificial yellow coloring and turns a pallid gray.” You’ll never look at it the same way again!