It’s similar to a pimple from the underworld. Okay, not a carbuncle from the netherworld, but still a slow, stomach-churning sight of horrors that have been imagined and perhaps are still to come. In other words: food poisoning.
“Most of the time, when you experience food poisoning from a restaurant, it’s usually something like this,” said @loony_jolb15 in his warning TikTok video.
He softly presses a Carl’s Jr. Buttermilk ranch container. Then a thick white mass of dressing slowly flows out from the far end of the small tub.
You can hold it in your hand, and it looks really nice,” he said while positioning it at different angles. “Squeeze it a bit and then guess what? It’s actually leaking.
In a subsequent email, @loony_jolb15 mentioned that he had suffered from food poisoning. He believes it was caused by Domino’s Pizza. Then, on the day he created the TikTok, he noticed something that led him to make the connection.
I ordered French fries from Carl’s Jr., and on the outside of the ranch packet, I noticed something that appeared to be curdled ranch,” he said. “You can even see it in the video, although I didn’t examine it too closely because I wanted to keep it brief.
Out of curiosity, he pressed the packet slightly, and the sauce oozed out the side, he mentioned.
Immediately, I thought, ‘Wait, could that be how I got food poisoning from Domino’s one time?’
He mentioned he had never thought about it before, and then came to the realization that perhaps others hadn’t either. “If you gently press the packet a bit before opening it, you can actually detect a leak and possibly prevent a food poisoning incident.”
Ranch as a fan-favorite
In the United States, ranch dressing is found in thetop fiveAmong the most commonly used condiments on the table are items like mayonnaise and ketchup. In European markets, it is marketed under the name “American Dressing.”
“Trying Ranch for the first time was a life-changing moment […] I became instantly addicted and wanted to try EVERYTHING with Ranch,” wrote a food blogger.Quaint Cooking.
The child had no idea that someday, ranch dressing would be sprinkled, spilled, and incorporated into meals as different as baked zucchini and pot roast.Mississippi Pot Roast specifically, and it is 100 percent worth the shocking calories for those who consume meat).
According to the tale of the ranch dressing’s beginnings, plumber Steve Hensen created the mixture while employed in Alaska. Eventually, he and his wife, Gayle, moved to the Hidden Valley Ranch in California. There, he offered the dressing to visitors at the namesake steakhouse. Due to its immense popularity, with many guests requesting to take a bottle home, he began selling ready-made herb kits.
Throughout the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, the dressing’s popularity increased consistently. In 1972, Clorox acquired the recipe and the rights to the name Hidden Valley.
However, similar to the title of “oldest city in America” (a title disputed between St. Augustine, Florida, and Santa Fe, New Mexico), the legend behind the Ranch dressing has another contender. This alternative claim is noted in John Maraiani’s Encyclopedia of American Food and Drinks: David Bears, a co-owner of Todd’s Foods, created the recipe in 1980 as a dipping sauce for Bobby McGee’s restaurants.
But, if Bear created it in 1980, how could the Hensens have sold it in 1972?
It seems that the ranch dressing we know and enjoy today has its origins in a dressing previously called “buttermilk dressing,” which was commonly used in cowboy cuisine.
It’s worth mentioning that Cool Ranch Doritos also played a role in popularizing ranch dressing. AsCNNmentioned in a 2025 article, the chips introduced in 1986 remain some of the company’s best-selling products.
Those California cowboys who frequent ranches wouldn’t have given a gentle or any kind of squeeze to the ranch packet shown in @loony_jolb15’s video. But then again, they likely weren’t concerned about shelf stability.
The short shelf life of ranch is mainly due to the fact that dairy tends to spoil.
Actually, one method by which dairy products spoil is when the container holding them is compromised, allowing air to enter. As learned in 8th-grade biology, milk contains numerous microorganisms. While pasteurization (heating) eliminates many of these, it doesn’t destroy all of them. Once air enters a previously sealed container, it creates an ideal environment for bacteria and viruses (such as E. coli, Listeria, Salmonella, and Norovirus, along with other harmful pathogens) to thrive.
“This ranch might have caused me to get sick if I hadn’t noticed this small amount leaking here,” said @loony_jolb15 as he kept applying Dr. Pimplepopper to the broken Carl’s Jr. sauce.
Later, he remarked on what astonished him the most “…is that there isn’t a warning label or any standard safety measure for this. It seems like something everyone should be aware of.”
The Mary Sue has contacted Carl’s Jr. for a response.
