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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Christmas cakes/biscuits hand-baked by neighbors..unreasonable to throw away?

128 replies

Feminine · 22/12/2011 00:34

I do not like eating hand-baked goodies from the neighbors...at all Wink

Every year, masses and masses is given to our family for the Christmas season.

I haven't seen their kitchens nor do I know if they wash their hands etc, I would prefer to know they are clean before giving them to the children.

This is possibly totally irrational and un-kind, I just can't do it though.

Reading it back I look vile ...I know Blush

Would you eat baked goods, not really knowing the source?

AIBU to just slide the whole lot in to the trash?

Actually, I would like to be told I am...there is so much, the children are eyeing it up even though I thought I had hidden it from them

OP posts:
thisisyesterday · 22/12/2011 11:46

you do realise that most of the food you eat will have been touched by people? and that those people may not have washed their hands?
and you realise that vegetables sometimes grow IN the actual ground, with mud and stuff??

of course YABU

GoldenGreen · 22/12/2011 11:48

ha ha, DP and I were just saying that we should stop baking Christmas cookies for the neighbours - we are sure they just throw them out! They are decorated by ds (with clean hands supervision) and he really enjoys delivering them every year but we don't get effusive thanks Grin. I think a tin of Celebrations for them next year!

halcyondays · 22/12/2011 11:50

Yabu and I'm sure if we saw what went on in factories and restaurants sometimes we wouldn't want to eat bought food either. How do you know people working there always wash their hands? I would assume home made food came from a pretty clean kitchen and was handledby someone with perfectly reasonable hygiene practices unless I had reason to believe otherwise, if you knew that the neighbours were dirty people or had kitchens that you would need to get Kim and Aggie in for, then you might have a point.

thisisyesterday · 22/12/2011 11:50

do you eat out btw OP?

do you ask to check the kitchens first?
as much as we'd like to think that all restaurants etc have impeccably clean kitchens and well-trained staff the reality is often different

jumpingjackhash · 22/12/2011 11:56

Christ, if you'd ever seen a factory line churning out things like this you'd never eat again!

Floggingmolly · 22/12/2011 12:01

I'd be the same, I'm afraid. At work a few years ago, just as I bit into the (delicious) slice of Christmas cake one of my colleagues had kindly baked, she decided to announce how cute her cat had looked asleep on top of the cake, as he always chose the warmest spot in the kitchen for his naps Hmm. I have no idea if the cake was wrapped before the cat took up residence, but I raced to the loo to avoid swallowing, and have felt just as you do, ever since. You have no idea what apparently sane people consider acceptable.

redrubyshoes · 22/12/2011 12:12

If you don't want to eat them why bin them? Can't you feed them to the birds?

kickassangel · 22/12/2011 12:12

fem I'm in Michigan.

aldiwhore · 22/12/2011 12:19

I get loads of home baked goodies too. Some are wonderful, some gopping, some get saved as I know they'll be good, some get binned on first contact.

I have no idea what the kitchens are like that they're cooked in, and I don't want to overthink that, but I am not dead and have never been ill from a home baked gift... although I have felt ill, but that was down to the fact that particular 'goodie' was rank.

Always appreciated though.

Of course YABU to overthink this so so much OP but YANBU for binning them if you don't want them, just do it quietly.

Firawla · 22/12/2011 12:30

I think binning them is a bit mean, if you dont want them would rather find someone else whos happy to have them and pass them on or atleast feed it to any animals who would eat it? as it seems heartless to literally bin someone's efforts and also wrong when people are starving in the world and even here in uk there are people going hungry as they dont have much budget for food, so for that reason I would feel awful to just bin the food.

I get your issue about the kitchen hygeiene etc but if you have ever been in their house and it was clean, and they look a fairly normal clean person then it would probably be okay really. If you know them to have a dirty kitchen and bad hygeine obviously that is a bit different, but if you are unsure i would just rather think the best of people.

If i baked some food for someone and they chucked in bin i would be a bit upset i think (not that i ever do bake cakes for people really, but in theory if i did, i would want them to eat it)

strictlovingmum · 22/12/2011 12:46

Do you buy cakes and pastries in supermarkets?
Among the not known ingredients, stored in huge tubs(hydrogenated fats) and all the other nasties that lurk on the factory floors, potentially neighbours "unwashed" hands should be least of your problems, YABU.

HappyCamel · 22/12/2011 12:50

You should tr working in a food factory, you'll never want to eat again...

alexpolismum · 22/12/2011 13:05
Biscuit

Eat that. I baked it myself. Anyone else want one? Biscuit

Original poster
Feminine · 22/12/2011 13:12

morningkick you will have personally tasted these particular type of candies I am talking about then...Wink

Well, its hard to answer all of your concerns ...

I'm not a germ phobic etc...

These treats are mostly done with the aid of small kid fingers, but my eldest polished off the pop-corn jello-ball last night!

The treats are not a selection of mince pies , or a delicately put together jam sponge ...they are unusual to say the least!

When we first moved here, I was given a corgette loaf-I did bin it , not having MN to consult (you understand Wink)

Thanks all for your replies ... and Merry Christmas! I extend that even to the poster who said I sounded like a bitch.

OP posts:
Original poster
Feminine · 22/12/2011 13:13

Oh thanks alex I asked for that didn't I?

OP posts:
alexpolismum · 22/12/2011 13:15
Wink
Adversecamber · 22/12/2011 17:59

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

hiddenhome · 22/12/2011 18:17

YABU

I've just made a Christmas cake for my friend and the ingredients cost about £15 in total. A lot of effort goes into making these things. Unless you know the person is a total scruff just enjoy them. I'm sure they're fine and they've been baked in the oven too.

Mirage · 22/12/2011 18:19

I was just checking to see if you were my neighbour.DD2 and I made ginger biscuits last night and dd2 took them some around as she thought they'd enjoy them.I hope they didn't bin them.

sitandnatter · 22/12/2011 18:24

YANBU, my job takes me into many different people's homes and their standard of hygiene isn't the same as mine and I'm not the queen of clean, I've seen cleaner and I've seen way way worse.

I've also been in a school staff room on cake sale day and the teachers buy the cakes then bin them. The cookery teachers know what little piggies some of th children can be while making the cakes.

I wouldn't eat or buy homemade food unless I knew the persons hygiene who had made them.

thepeoplesprincess · 22/12/2011 18:29

YABU- but you are reasonable enough to know it.

I'm a bit Hmm at those who've said they won't eat anything touched by child hands tho. If we cook for school fayres/nans etc then I always make sure they're decorated by grubby little fingers. I kind;a assumed that was the point.

Original poster
Feminine · 22/12/2011 18:31

mirage No, not your neighbor unless you live in rural USA Wink

I am glad to hear I am not the only freak here...

My kids have broken the cling film, and are now joyful in their consumption of the M&Ms stuck on pretzels + icing!

Its just the unknown isn't it sit :)

OP posts:
YonderRevoltingPeasantWhoIsHe · 22/12/2011 18:35

YABU, not that you needed telling again Xmas Wink

I worked in a very posh bakery when I lived in New York - people literally came from other states to buy food there.

Downstairs was a big, dark cellar with rows and rows of metal shelving. Huge mounds of baker's chocolate (uncovered), eggs, and open bags of sugar lay on them. They had rat traps throughout. And strips of fly paper hanging from the wonky electric light.

All the baked goods were made by hideously exploited Latin American immigrant workers (though only 'white' girls like me were customer-facing Hmm). They made them work 12-14 hour shifts. They had one toilet. There was no soap in it, nor paper towels.

You do the math, as we like to say.....

I prefer baking my own!

sitandnatter · 22/12/2011 18:38

TO BE fair yonder if that is the standard of hygiene they get away with in monitored establishments, what chance does the home made stuff have of being prepared hygienically. I'd have to really know the giver to eat any home made stuff. Call me paranoid but it would go in the bin.

spottyscarf · 22/12/2011 18:51

I was sure you were my neighbour OP- we went round there for dinner once and I brought a home-made cake. Afterwards she claimed she and DC were FAR too full to eat any (though her DH did and liked it!) and made a big show of cutting off a slice for them to eat 'later' and made us take the rest home. At DD's birthday barbecue they made sure to arrive late enough to miss lunch, then wouldn't let their DD eat her slice of cake, again took it home for 'later' Hmm She will very rarely accept a cup of tea in our house and certainly always says no to any kind of homemade snack. She wouldn't even drink tap water the other day!

She has told me she never eats in restaurants or has takeaways (you never know who's cooked the food apparently..) The ironic thing is at her house you are always showered with homemade food and she never takes no for an answer.

She clearly thinks food is only good if she herself has made it!