Would you eat cake baked by a colleague?

[Seniorschoolmum]

Recently someone had a significant birthday, and two colleagues brought in home made cakes. Both beautifully decorated.

Yet a couple of people declined a slice, saying they never eat home cooked anything because they can’t be sure what the food hygiene was like.
I was a bit stunned. Am I just slow on the uptake or is that normal now?
I “get” not eating cake if you’re on a diet or just don’t like cake.

I wouldn't eat it, I'm
Not ocd but I don't eat home baked goods from people unless I seen it being cooked and prepared. Unless I know them well and have seen them cook something before and that they are hygienic

I don't, but I never say out loud that my reasons are related to not knowing their levels of cleanliness/ pet hair/ kids helping 🤢 in fact I only eat my own kids baking if I've witnessed it being made 😬 (but would never let on to them, obviously!!)

I am quite picky on where I eat out too, much to my husbands disgust. I blame the food hygiene exams I did in my youth!!

They were rude. Eat it or don’t eat it but there’s no call for insults.

I eat cakes by colleagues as I personally know them all, I’m usually the one that makes them though. I won’t however eat them from a bake sale at school because you can’t be sure where they came from.

I would eat homemade cake. Two people in my office have awful personal hygiene though, so if they made it or had touched it with their bare hands I would say I wasn't hungry but thank you for the offer. So rude to say you can't trust hygiene out loud like that...

Also I do have OCD so I am a bit OTT with contamination.

I once got a cake from a garden centre (made in a factory) and it had a huge black hair baked in it so I really don't think you're safer eating factory produced food!

I was going to say 'of course this would be weird'.....then I thought of the family member who has cats, is always touching them, and who doesn't wash her hands very often. Tbh I don't really even like accepting a cup of coffee when I visit (although I do, with absolute politeness and thanks). She makes cakes to sell and advertises this as a service.

I might not want to eat one of her cakes BUT for an office cake-round I'd never be so rude as to openly question someone's hygiene. I'd just say 'no, thanks, I'm fine'. With a smile.

I also bake, and take cakes into work occasionally. For a while I even made baked goods for a public event. But I didn't have pets (although that doesn't mean you can't make food to sell), I had pass a course for the basic food hygiene qualification, and the local authority health safety inspector dropped round to check my kitchen to verify things like hand-washing facilities.

O Lord, I'd forgotten this, thanks for the memory. A client used to bring a home baked cake for one of my colleagues every couple of weeks. Straight into the bin with it once she'd left.
"Why do you do that, is her baking that bad?"
"Long, when I have to visit, I leave my bag in the car and don't sit down. You can see the cockroaches on the walls. And that's the least of it."
not envy.

Not all colleagues - not because of hygiene but because some people's baking is better than others. I would never say so l though and just excuse myself by saying 'I've just had something thank you, I'll maybe have some later'

Equally I have a cat and her hair frequently ends up in food so I wouldn't bake (even if I knew how to) in case a colleague got a hair in their cake 🙈

Anxiety like that really is beyond my comprehension. I see this on MN from time to time and I just don't get it. Or don't get why people aren't at least trying to address their irrational fears by counselling or something. Because it's not normal. And it's not ok. And if you are that anxious you must be passing it onto your children, which is bad parenting.

This thread has made me smile,

I worked in Preschool for a number of years, the children loved cooking activities.
(Think fingers up noses, coughing and sneezing on to hands/food they were preparing, that's if they remembered to cover their mouth in time, learning to wipe themselves after going on the toilet, and washing hands)
My colleagues and I used to make up a separate batch of what ever the children were making and would eat that when the children ate theirs at snack time.

Any how, I'm type 2 diabetic and very often say no thank you to cake/sweets/biscuits offered. I hope this doesn't look rude/offend others.

It’s really sad how many people are suffering ocd germ phobia issues in secret but with the new openness to mental health and mental illness loosing its stigma ( thank fuck !) These folks are coming out , in this case it’s still rude as hell but maybe now you know they are suffering you can talk about it openly maybe ?? I’m on a permanent diet and always take a small slice and “ save it for and later” eat a bit bin the rest

I love a homemade cake but I admit I never ate the stuff brought home from nursery!

This reminds me of when I was a child and my parents would occasionally be invited for dinner at a neighbouring couple's house. Until they saw the bloke leaving a video rental place clutching a tape in a brown paper bag and assumed it was a porn film. They refused any invitations from them after that because "We don't know where their hands have been."

i generally don't eat cake or want to eat cake these days, but would take a small slice 'for later'. I wouldn't worry at all about hygiene- that's just ridiculous rude and rubbish

Yes I would eat it. I love home made cake. I think it's rude for them to say that's the reason for not eating it. If they don't want it fair enough but I think they are being ridiculous and rude to question your hygiene.

It's so bloody rude in my opinion.

Homemade cake?! Would I! You’d have to keep me at bay with a stick!

Some people are just very rude and/or very silly. They’re more likely to pick something up from their keyboard. Do they think the IT lot anti-bac their hands before fiddling about with the technology?

I would eat it, but my own hygiene standards are very low (cats all over the kitchen) so other people's standards wouldn't concern me.

I never take home-made food into work.

As pps have said, refusing is fine but there's no need to give a reason - saying you never eat it for this or that reason is attention-seeking, drama-llama, rude behaviour.

A simple 'No thanks' is all that's needed; and that's only required if the cake is presented to you. Normally in the office cakes are put out for people to help themselves, so there's no need to say anything at all.

I wouldn't, for the same reason, but would never say that!

As someone who has OCD which is a debilitating condition, I wouldn't eat anything prepared by anyone other than myself and my dh. (Not even my dm or dcs)
I would never say it though and think of an excuse.

Omg that's snowflakery of 73rd level ffs 😂

Of course. I thought I was a bit ott about germs but people on here take it to another level. There was a thread yesterday saying people wouldn't share tooth PASTE.

For all those PP who wouldn’t eat homemade cake do you never eat at other people’s houses?

It’s quite usual amongst our group of friends to have parties where you all bring a plate to share, so you might be able to check out the host’s levels of hygiene but not the rest of the party goers.

And for the PP who turned up their nose at people using spread not butter, I mainly use Stork not butter when baking and have never had any complaints (unless everyone is being polite)

A few years ago I would have but recently went to a clients home which was absolutely filthy with not a clean clear surface in site. She baked cakes for her colleagues on a regular basis but if they had seen the house would have been horrified so I wouldn’t blame anyone for not accepting. She also said she didn’t have hot water but when I ran the tap she did so obviously none of the equipment had ever been washed in hot water. Unless you have been in their kitchen I wouldn’t touch it.