To ask you ‘what the *** you think I ate?’

Supermarket sandwiches and wraps are not all handmade and it's even less common now than it was pre-pandemic. Grote is a big producer of sandwich and wrap production line machinery - google them. Caustic soda is used as a cleaner in industrial machinery and PP has said that it tastes salty and creates a burning sensation so that sounds like the most reasonable explanation to me. It wouldn't necessarily end up on the outside either OP, because it could have contaminated one of the ingredients as they made their way through the production line.

Sounds like a rough neighbourhood if that's what they're cutting it with! 😛

I’ve tasted washing powder loads of times. Accidentally, like. 👀

I have a promising lead, perhaps it was caustic soda?

check this story out:

https://www.itv.com/news/london/2023-12-19/club-fined-after-mistakenly-serving-caustic-soda-instead-of-salt-with-tequila

Pret does an avo, parm and cucumber wrap. Was it from there?

A guy I work with once bit down on the sterilising pill that they use to wash the salad. It’s supposed to dissolve. Could it have been that? Salty/bleachy/burny?

Could it have been some sort of pesticide on one of the salad ingredients?

This happened to me once with a dessert. Horrible strong chemical taste that felt like it was fizzing and burning. I thought it was bleach. All OK at a&e.

What was left of the food was sent for testing. Turned out that it was a very very concentrated dose of flavouring that was supposed to be mixed into a batch of however many hundred desserts, but somehow hadn't mixed, and I got it in one mouthful. Scary and unpleasant.

Definitely contact them and get the rest tested.

‘While not an allergy, some people can have a reaction to pine nutsTrusted Source that leaves a bitter or metallic taste in the mouth that usually appears 1 to 3 days after ingesting the nuts, and can last for several weeks.
Scientists aren’t exactly sure why this happens, but they suspect it may have something to do with a contaminant, such as any of the chemicals used in the shelling process, a genetic predisposition, or the nut’s oil becoming rancid’.

just found this online OP. Also said the taste is sometimes described as ‘salty’ too

I had a tuna sandwich a few months ago that tasted so salty I couldn't eat it. But it turns out it's me, everything tastes weird, the Dr isn't sure why but my bloods are ok.

It ended up on the piece of bread I put down on the bread board (it was on the breadboard and I wasn't concentrating)
It tastes salty but obviously chemical but that wasn't inside with lots of other flavours.

A slug?

It sounds like you may have developed an allergy to something

Either way a&e was a good call, your arm could be hanging on by a thread and someone on here would come on and say why did you go to a&e 🙄

I had ‘pine mouth’ from a salad with a tiny sprinkling of pine nuts. I’d eaten them numerous times before but this must have been a different type as my mouth felt really weird - burning and a metallic, chemical taste. It also affected how other food tasted and made it unpleasant to eat. It was strong for a few days, then gradually receded over a week or two.

I reckon it’s a mix of Parmesan with pine nuts, causing the salty, chemically burn.

It can be dried yeast flaked powder, which is a modern substitute for msg. Like yeast extract (marmite) can be very salty and could be through the whole wrap. If it says enhanced b12 then that could be it. Salt is also added to the bread wrap usually. If the mix didn't mix properly then it's possible you got a huge dose. Did the inside of your nose burn?

there is loads of different salts. The one we know is sodium chloride. There is many others and they are often used as cleaning products. Sodium carbonate - that is the salt that is used in washing powder. Dissolved in water it reacts with water to form hydroxide which is a cleaner. Sodium phosphate is another salt that does the same thing. It is also a used as a cleaner. There is a whole class of basic salts they are called - that are used as cleaning products.

HOWEVER I am defining them as salts in the scientific definition of a salt. I have never eaten them so I have no idea if all these things have a salty taste.

Guys I am fully invested in the outcome now. They better test the sandwich at environmental health I wanna know. OP if you ever find out we're all here for it!

Yes I think the fat in milk absorbs spicy stuff and helps to remove it from the inside of your mouth, so maybe it's a general thing that it helps with anything that might cause damage / pain. I'd go for ice cream if you have any, you get cold + milk then. Not to mention deliciousness 😆

Always report food safety and contamination issues to environmental health at your local council.

This is an example Food complaints we can and can't deal with | Food safety complaints | Norwich City Council

They might also have the facilities or have access to facilities to have it tested.

It's more important that you report this to your local council as an enforcer of food safety rather than to the seller.

People listening to You and Yours at lunchtime today on Radio 4 may have been surprised shocked to hear that some well known supermarkets have been lying to misleading the public by displaying false food hygiene ratings...

Always report food safety issues to your local council

No idea - maybe too much salt / or filling not mixed well. It's one of the productions that is labour intensive because they can't get a machine to do it.

Basically they smosh your filling on and cut by hand. 😂

I react to some parmesan but not all - it's the histamine. My money is on an allergy to the parmesan

I was thinking the Parmesan was the saltiness too. Perhaps a different supplier to previous .

If you do not have any burns then it's not likely to be from a chemical (that shouldn't be in there). Plus it wouldn't just be localised to your mouth. It will be from one of those other ingredients or preservatives. I'm sensitive to citrus. I get that burning feeling (and canker sores) from avocado-based things because lemon juice is often used to stop avocados from turning brown.