While you can’t control what happens as food is prepared behind the scenes, you keep an eye out for major red flags around the buffet station (and in the restaurant at large). Some of these might be obvious, like roaming insects—you wouldn’t eat at a place that had cockroaches actively scurrying around, after all—but others are more subtle and easy to miss. Read on for 12 signs you should take your business elsewhere—because no amount of stomach upset is worth saving a few bucks.

1. Bad reviews.

“Before I go someplace, I always check the reviews on it,” Martin Bucknavage, MS, a senior food safety extension associate at Pennsylvania State University, tells SELF. To be clear, online feedback is by no means a perfect metric for determining if a restaurant (or any other establishment) is worth visiting or not—there’s always the possibility a bad review came from someone with a personal vendetta against the business—but a bunch of low ratings or similarly themed complaints should tell you something about the overall quality of the experience. If there are enough of them, “reviews will give you a pretty good indication about a spot,” Bucknavage says.

2. Dirty facilities.

This one probably goes without saying, but poor sanitary conditions within the restaurant itself should be a cue to take your business elsewhere. Not only are bugs like flies “a source of contamination in and of themselves,” but they also hint at “a lack of cleanliness in the whole operation,” Bucknavage says. (And of course, “when you see a cockroach, all bets are off. You’re done there. You leave.”) Beyond the presence of insects, bad odors and visibly dirty surfaces—floors, carpets, tables, or counters—should also set off alarm bells. Either it hints at a “lack of commitment” on the part of the staff, or insufficient staffing, Bucknavage says, both of which have the same outcome: Mistakes will be made, and important hygiene tasks will fall by the wayside.

3. Poorly maintained bathrooms.

In the same vein, bathrooms are a microcosm of an entire restaurant—“a canary in the coal mine” as far as food safety is concerned, Dr. Detwiler says. If they’re out of hand soap or toilet paper, for example, “those are bad signs,” according to Bucknavage. In practice, a lack of soap indicates that staff, customers, and other visitors may not be washing their hands adequately after using the toilet—a huge issue. Not only is contact with fecal bacteria plain disgusting, but it’s also a major transmission route for norovirus, E. coli, and many other pathogens. On a more conceptual level, Dr. Detwiler notes, it naturally raises concerns about the rest of the establishment: If a public-facing space like a bathroom is neglected, he reasons, “I don’t want to know what it’s like for the areas the public doesn’t see.”

4. Lots of little kids.

Delightful as children can be, they’re not exactly known for their impeccable hygiene, attention to social norms, or sophisticated understanding of food poisoning pathology. So a whole bunch of tiny tots (or bigger ones) running around a restaurant buffet might signal that the food safety situation isn’t ideal—especially if they’re unsupervised. “I’m not going to get food that I’ve seen little kids around,” Dr. Detwiler says, adding that allowing little kids to serve themselves at a buffet is “a food safety disaster waiting to happen.” Besides all the typical sanitary pitfalls—“runny noses and dirty hands and grabbing of food”—kids also simply don’t have the background knowledge necessary to realize that any of this is a problem in the first place, he says, so they’ll readily and unknowingly put themselves at risk along with everyone nearby.

5. Uncovered pans.

At a buffet, putting a lid on it is the way to go—always. “Everything should be covered,” Bucknavage says. His reasoning is simple: By acting as a physical barrier between the food and the outside world, the cover helps ensure there’s “not any kind of opportunity for anything”—dust, dirt, hair, mucus, saliva, kids’ fingers, you name it—“to get into the product.” Otherwise? It’s basically open season.

6. Lack of temperature control.

Put simply, “hot food should be hot, and cold food should be cold,” Bucknavage says. Temperature control isn’t simply a matter of personal preference; there’s a real scientific basis for it. Maintaining a temperature of 140 degrees Fahrenheit or higher (for hot food) and 40 degrees Fahrenheit or lower (for cold food) staves off bacterial growth, since bugs flourish best in the “danger zone”—the interval between those two points. To keep this danger zone at bay, hot food should be kept in or on some sort of heated device, like a slow cooker or warming tray, per the FDA. Meanwhile, a refrigeration unit or bed of ice can help cold food retain its chill, according to Dr. Detwiler. What’s more, “there should be either live temperature monitoring or evidence that the staff is taking temperatures” regularly—like with a food thermometer, Dr. Detwiler says.

7. Food that’s been sitting out.

Even if temperature control measures are in place, the food in the buffet lineup should still be constantly refreshed to cut down on safety risks, according to Dr. Detwiler. Staff should be bringing out new batches and removing old ones on a frequent basis, he says. Two hours is the typically accepted limit for non-temperature-controlled items, while one hour is best if the ambient temperature is higher than 90 degrees Fahrenheit, since intense heat speeds up deterioration and spoilage. Health concerns aside, the customer experience is also at stake: As food ages and dries out, “it’s going to be less desirable or less palatable,” Bucknavage says—so there’s “a safety part of it, but there’s also that quality part of it as well.”

8. Batch blending.

On a related note: Whenever he sees a buffet employee dump a new batch of food on top of the remnants of the last (or scrape the remnants into the new batch), “it blows my mind,” Dr. Detwiler says. Namely, he says, it violates one of the cardinal food safety rules: First in, first out. Mingling multiple batches not only extends the amount of time the old stuff will be hanging on (which, as we’ve already established, increases the risk for bacteria), it also infects the new stuff with any bacteria that have already started to grow. Really, “whatever’s left, they should throw it out,” Bucknavage says. (Using smaller containers rather than bigger ones can help reduce the corresponding food waste, according to Dr. Detwiler.)

9. Food that looks (or smells) off.

Yet another one that hopefully goes without saying: “If anything does not look right, don’t eat it,” Bucknavage says. “Don’t take it for granted that it’s going to be okay.” Worrisome changes in appearance, odor, or any other feature could indicate the food is so old that it’s already begun to deteriorate—or else, that it wasn’t even safe to begin with. Take refried beans—a Mexican buffet staple—as an example: When they “start to look like clay that’s starting to get hard, it just becomes problematic,” Dr. Detwiler says. Even if you’re 90% confident you’ll be fine, you don’t want to chance a painful bout of digestive distress—especially if you or someone in your party is particularly vulnerable, like the very young, the elderly, or those who are pregnant.

10. Shared serving utensils.

By mixing and matching, “you’re cross-contaminating”—transferring allergens and/or pathogens from one pan of food to another, Dr. Detwiler says. Instead, each pan of food should have its own dedicated set of (clean!) tongs, ladles, serving spoons, or other serving utensils, according to Bucknavage. Furthermore, Bucknavage adds, those utensils should actively be “in the product with the handle sticking out” rather than propped up against the pan or lying on the counter—another anti-contamination measure, since bacteria or other pathogens could also be lying in wait on those surfaces. (Still, Dr. Detwiler cautions, “If I had a food allergy or if someone in my family had a food allergy, I would never, ever, ever in a million years go to a buffet.”)

11. Reused plates.

While it might feel more natural—even eco-conscious—to take your original plate back to the buffet for another helping rather than stop to replace it with a fresh one (that’s what you’d do at home, after all), it likewise raises concerns about cross-contamination, according to Dr. Detwiler. Even if it’s nothing more than a graze, he says, “you’re inevitably going to be touching your used plate with a [shared] utensil”—a utensil that is then returned to the main pan of food, imbuing it with whatever was on your plate to begin with, like saliva or food scraps.

12. Direct skin-to-food contact.

No ifs, ands, or buts: Utensils should always be used to take food from pans to minimize the risk of contamination. “I don’t care if it’s a cookie, I don’t care if it’s corn on the cob. There’s a reason why you use the tongs or the spatula or the ladle or whatever. Don’t use your hands,” Dr. Detwiler says. (Likewise, make sure to take what you touch—that’s just good etiquette.) Staff should also be wearing gloves at all times. If these kinds of policies aren’t enforced well, Bucknavage explains, it can “open the door” to a disease outbreak.

13. Zero staff oversight.

If you’ve ever been to a buffet, you might have noticed an attendant or two hovering around the serving station to keep an eye on things—refilling the pans once they run low, correcting people who try to reuse the same plate or serving utensils, et cetera. Maybe the constant oversight even makes you feel self-conscious, but fundamentally, it’s a positive: “You want to see somebody there managing that space,” Bucknavage says. Basically, their presence is supposed “to prevent some of these [food safety] failures,” Dr. Detwiler says. By the same token, their absence indicates a lack of vigilance on the restaurant’s part. Having someone on hand who can readily address concerns or intervene when needed “should be a priority,” Dr. Detwiler says. Regardless of size, location, or cuisine type, a buffet “should be an environment where the customer is able to inquire for information or prompt action.”

Here are a few more tips for keeping yourself safe at a restaurant buffet.

Go early in the day if you can.

If you’re planning to eat breakfast at a buffet (or even if you’re just an early bird by nature), try to arrive sooner rather than later, according to Dr. Detwiler. Being first (or among the first) “would put my mind at ease much more quickly than if I walk in there and it’s crowded,” he says. Not only will fewer people have had the chance to pass through and potentially contaminate the food, it also means that the food will be fresher and the temperature control will be better. (For similar reasons, try to spring on fresh batches while you’re at the buffet. “Watch for food that’s just coming out of the kitchen,” Dr. Detwiler advises.)

Stick with the hot stuff…

Whenever Bucknavage visits a buffet (which isn’t that often for obvious reasons), he gravitates toward hot and cooked dishes because he feels they’re a safer bet health-wise. Generally, in fact, “you’re going to be better off” that way, he says. Cooked food has been exposed to high temps that deter malicious microbes on at least one occasion—whereas with cold or ready-to-eat items, there’s no “destruction step for any kind of bacteria.”

…or at least avoid specific high-risk items.

Cantaloupes are a major food safety sore point for Dr. Detwiler (their pH is “perfect” for bacteria proliferation and their rough, netted rind makes it tough to thoroughly clean them—two major strikes right there), so he suggests steering clear of these particular melons entirely. “I would never eat cantaloupe at a buffet,” he says. Similarly, he adds, “I’m not a fan of seafood or lunch meats, deli meats, or even a lot of cheeses.”

On the other hand, Dr. Detwiler actually recommends prepackaged, individually wrapped, or otherwise self-contained foods—like bananas because of the peel, or hard-boiled eggs because of the shell. Because of their protective layers, the inner portion—the part you eat—is insulated from the contaminant-riddled outside world.

And finally, don’t be afraid to speak up or voice a concern.

Like any other restaurant, “there are great examples of buffets out there,” Dr. Detwiler says. “Unfortunately, sometimes they get a bad reputation because of people who don’t prioritize food safety and take food safety as seriously as they should—and it’s the bad actors that make the headlines.” You can’t always tell the two kinds apart on the surface, hence why watching out for these warning signs is important—as is advocating for yourself. “If it doesn’t look right, if you’re in doubt, ask questions,” Dr. Detwiler says. “It’s important for people to have that element of control and ownership over their decisions”—including, and especially, where their health is concerned. “If the toll on you or someone in your family is greater than the perceived economic value of going to a buffet to eat,” it’s probably not worth it.

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