Anyone who's worked in a restaurant with a soft-serve machine (used to make milkshakes and more) knows how much of a PITA they are to clean...

Which means they don't get deep cleaned often enough, even at reputable places.

Do people get sick and die every day from these machines? No, of course not. But we cannot trivialize the liability and risk here.

If every restaurant had a self-cleaning smart self-diagnosing machine like McDonald's has, all the better.

You should think carefully before ordering a soft-serve anything from most places...

At a small town in my Canadian province there is a seasonal ice cream stand/dairy bar. My Mom and Aunt go there since it's the town in which they grew up.

My Mom asked the person at the counter why does their soft ice cream taste so good. The person said "Because we clean the machine every day."