LIDL bakery counter - I don't understand!

[BeachBlondey]

Is this not the most unhygienic way to sell bread and pastries? With no wrappers on and sitting in the open air. People breath all over the stuff and can handle it without buying. Even in the middle of the pandemic, the food had no covers on. And doesn't it go stale quicker, just sitting there with no packaging? I'm not a germaphobe my any means, but it always seems a bit....ODD.

This is how it should be.

Why damage the environment even further by adding more plastic packaging when it is completely unnecessary.

Farmers markets, bakeries, greengrocers, butchers etc all do this else every item would have to be individually wrapped which is pointless, expensive and bad for the environment.

It is very unhygenic in the UK Lidls. I don't want to be eat something that has been touched by x number of unwashed hands.

All the Lidls I have been to in continental Europe have the rolls etc behind a glass screen. There is then a hole through which to put a tool and push a roll out and it comes down a slide to be collected. Simple way to avoid cross contamination, not sure why this is not possible in the UK.

I used to love LIDL bakery stuff until I saw a couple of teenagers coughing and sneezing over everything, wiping their noses with their hands then touching the products. Put me right off.

My Sainsburys do this and every Tesco Express I've ever been in. I think it's normal.

You can wash fruit and veg - but tbh even that I tend to buy packaged, not loose.

I don buy anything from the ones like Lidl which are totally open.

People are mingers and don’t use tongs. I’ve seen people pick up slices of the pizza look at them, touch and flick the toppings, put the price back and do it to another before they chose the bit they wanted. I saw it so many times, I told staff once when someone had gone though ever but on a tray, touching and picking bits about and they just shrugged

I’ve seen people pick up things and sniff with their nose almost touching 🤢

In my local asda, eve french bread is by the fresh pizza counter. It’s at floor level, stored vertically. I was picking up a pizza last night and someone’s toddler was licking the top of the french bread that was sticking out, it’s all right at toddler head height.

Our local Lidls (UK) has a glass screen in front, with a space for you to reach through with tongs to get what you want. It's as hygienic as anywhere else. Can't see a problem here.

If you don't use the Lidls bakery, would you also refuse to use the salad bar at Morrisons? I love the Morrisons salad bar for a treat, but it is all open to be sneezed on by people, if that's your worry.

I'd still eat the chocolate hazelnut croissants if I'd seen a leper lick them.

😂😂😂😂😂😂

I’m realising I live in a place which is a bigger shithole than I thought and full of disgusting people, but I have seen people sticking fingers in to salad bar items and licking them.

So no. I personally don’t eat anything like that because honestly, there are some seriously disgusting people about (and people who can’t help it to be honest - we took my father with dementia to the Harvester and it was just horrific with the salad bar, I was naive about his condition, how it had changed him as a person and how fast and strong he still was, and long story short, it had to be closed and cleaned/restocked).

@nahnahnahnahnahnah 😂

Agreed, it’s a common and popular concept to be found in many different stores in the uk and across rhe world 😂

I never buy food from these kind of stands anymore. I once bought some of the rolls displayed like this in Morrisons and was sick. Can't prove it was from there but made me realise it's not worth the risk.

That isn't just Lidl, my local Co-op has cakes in very similar glass drawers that you pull out and help yourself, Sainsbury's has some bakery items the same. I helped myself to a Danish on a very similar drawer in M&S. Not sure why Lidl are being singled out.

I feel the same way about M&S and Waitrose. I want to eat their bread but not when it's open to anyone to finger and discard.

I don't mind if things are uncovered but away from customers, it's just things that you help yourself to.

I also dislike cafes where the cakes are uncovered and on display along the queue. I really don't want to eat a cake that multiple people have coughed over, even pre covid.

Put things behind the counter or a display case!

I've been put off supermarket bakeries after seeing that viral video of scurrying rats in Sainsbury's bakery. The best thing is to bake at home or go to a 5/5 hygienic independent bakery.

A number of posts on this thread demonstrate exactly why single use plastic will always be a problem.

I also hate buffet style food.

Germs are good for you anyway! I've always bought things from bakers and greengrocers and never given it a second thought. I like the lidl bakery. Never get tummy issues either!

I dont buy bakery food thats unwrapped. How many people have fingered the bread rolls before you pick it up to eat.

No thanks

Tbh I was put off when I went in there and seen a huge green bottle fly on one of the doughnuts, then another time I saw a young girl drop one and a man (don’t think she was with him) said “just pick it up and put it back no one will know”

I’ve seen some things man, I’ve seen some things

shame, their little pizza things and pastries are really nice but some of the other shoppers are grim with their poking and prodding

You can't breathe on the ones in my Lidl- the plastic containers slope down and you have to reach in and up to get the food.
In Tesco and other markets they are in open top baskets.

Wait till OP hears about public transport... 😱

As I passed the pastry counter in v well known supermarket, I saw a pair of tongs had fallen onto the floor. A member of staff also passing briskly picked it up and just put it back for the next person to use...