Health inspector reports are public record in most counties. You can go online and read why they scored the way they did and judge accordingly.

There are plenty of people employed that mess with food on purpose too.  Even the high end restaurants can have filthy kitchens too. 

Many people today especially young people have poor hygiene.  Dirty long long fingernails that look like satanic claws.  They have to wear their lgbt+ buttons.  You don’t see many Christians wearing buttons promoting the faith. 

Much ecoli Food recall  is from people not washing their hands after going number 2.

The quality of the food in restaurants is so poor since the lockdowns. It's like they can't afford to keep fresh food  and are using lower quality substitutes. Most everything is old and frozen. We are disappointed in most everyplace that we have gone to in the past two years. We eat at home and at least we know what we are eating.

Former restaurant worker (casual dining establishment) here and I can tell you that no one follows the health code regulations to a T.  You're supposed to wash your hands after you handle anything raw or every 30 minutes, whatever comes first and no one does that.  There's no time!  If you've ever worked in a restaurant you'll know it's fast paced and you have to move move move go go go and there's no time to do all the things they want you to do.  

You're also supposed to wear gloves after freshly washed hands if you put anything that is direct-to-eat (cheddar cheese on a salad for instance) and then immediately discard the gloves afterwards and then go wash your hands again.  The regulations are insane and you would seriously be blowing through 100's of gloves per shift per person to maintain their standards and not to mention food would take longer to get out which effects volume and makes people angry at having to wait longer.

The health department comes by once or twice a year but they always warn you a day or two before they get there so then the management will get everything ready for them to put on a good show but everyone is pretty much "wink wink" and we'll do everything right when the health department is there but as soon as their backs are turned or they leave it's back to the same ol' same ol.'

The restaurant I worked out would always pass with flying colors (or close to it0.)  So even the restaurants that have good grades you can expect that they do not follow the regulations and that they just put on a show for the health department.        

it is still probably 100x better compared to how people handled food like 100 years ago ...

Yes, horrifying! Dairymen actually milked cows with their bare hands. The milkman delivered milk in a jug. People were dropping dead all the time.

Maybe it was a good thing.

I worked at a restaurant in high school, and recall some law/rule against reusing ketchup bottles.  The manager just instructed us to combine all the half-empty bottles at the end of the day, and to wash the caps.  Then in the fridge they went, pretending to be new bottles.