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.

Totally agree with you. Its really unpleasant.

Oooh there's nothing like a still warm brownie from Lidl bakery.

Yes, I agree with you and to make it worse, in our local Lidl, the bakery is sat right next to the toilets.

Is it just Lidl doing this that bothers you? Most supermarkets do. And fruit and veg have been sold that way for years in markets and supermarkets alike.

Fruit and veg is washed once you get home though. Pastries are not.

I have more than a passing fondness for Lidl bakery items, and I’m not dead yet, so it can’t be that bad.

Just here to say that Lidl pasteis de nata are better than we had recently in Lisbon.

begoneday · Today 10:21
It is disgusting. Think about how many people don’t wash their hands after the toilet. These same people will cough over, touch, and sneeze over the pastries. There is a lack of hygiene that seems quite common so I don’t buy anything that isn’t covered.”

Tongs are provided. You never buy fresh vegetables that aren’t covered in plastic?

It’s naive to think everyone uses the tongs. I do buy uncovered fruit and veg because I can wash them once home,

pixie5121 · Today 10:57
I also think it's unhygienic, so I don't buy stuff from there. It's not so much that it's sitting uncovered, it's that people pick stuff up, touch it, and put it back. I don't particularly want to eat a croissant that's been pawed by a toddler who's just had his hand in his mouth. I go to bakeries where the goods are under a glass counter and only the staff touch them, with gloves on”

Very nice but a lot of people can’t afford that luxury.

We can but we like Lidl baked goods. Been shopping there since it opened in the early 90s, I think. The whole family has survived 😁

I live in Spain, the bakery in our lidl has everything in display cases that you cant put your hand in, you have to use a long paddle thing to push it to the side then it slides down onto a paper bag. No touching at all.

It’s naive to think everyone uses the tongs. I do buy uncovered fruit and veg because I can wash them once home,”

Oh well, happy to be naive then. It’s actually quite difficult to get the goods out of the cubby holes without the tongs, impossible for a toddler.
We all know, no-one who uses/works in independent bakeries, Waitrose/M&S, etc. picks their nose …. 😁

Can't beat a good sneeze muffin

I was in Tesco recently and saw two women ‘handling’ the open end of the baguettes. I can’t work out if they were just weird and choosing one, or deliberately putting germs on the bread. Either way, I only buy wrapped bread now.

The tongs are often missing at our Lidl. They also went through a phase of supplying small squares of plastic to pick up the food with instead although have thankfully stopped this now.

YANBU, I never buy from Lidl bakery for that reason, plus it's tasteless.

Not sure why people are insisting it's normal - Gregg's baked goods are kept behind a glass partition as are most bakeries. And supermarket baked goods are pre-wrapped/boxed.

Happily, it wasn’t blood soaked. But that’s how it was in the butchers when I was child.

Agreed.
I tend to take a paper bag, put my hand inside & pick up the individual cake / pastry I'm buying, then close the bag around it (similar to dog poo bag method).
That way, I've touched nothing at all, including my own goodies for later.

@EmpressOfTheSofa wins the internet today

"You're not going to die from someone breathing near some bread. Jesus fucking Christ."

I went there last summer, a bunch of kids were poking and touching at the stuff on display. Puts me right off.
Our Lidl has what looks like cupboards with plastic doors, and tongs and gloves. Seems fine.
I used to shop one of those bulk food places, you buy loose items, flour, sugar, beans, etc by weight and dispense into a bag and use a container at home. I went to get oats one day and a kid was licking his finger and eating sugar over and over, another time one was playing in the flour barrel, rubbing it in his hands. I only bought from the dispensers above the barrels that kids didn't touch.

have just had two Pasteis de nata from my local Lidl bakery. Very nice they were too. Sort of a plastic cover thing on the shelves which you poke the tongs through and extract what you want.

As per usual, MN doesn't disappoint with its high concentration of germaphobes, those who think wearing gloves is a magic talisman against all germs (even if you sneeze into those same gloves or pick your nose with the gloves), and the overuse of the adjective "grim".

I think the LIDL bakeries are far more hygienic than the Waitrose ones where bread is completely on display to be sprayed by snot or phlegm.

You can fall down a rabbit hole with this

chefs touching your food
serving staff touching the rims of glasses and plates
touching chairs to pull yourself in/out
touching the exposed loo roll in the pub toilet

on and on and on

hence why I stay away from rabbit holes

Yep the local Lidl nearby has all its fresh bakery products on display without any cover so anyone can breathe or sneeze cough over it all, throw the tongs on it or pick it up and not buy it. It's bloody grim.