To have offered feedback on a new supermarket worker?

[StitchWitch]

I bought cheese at the cheese counter today and was a bit taken aback that the girl (very young, very clean looking) handled the cheese with her bare hands. After serving me she brushed back some attractive wisps of hair that weren't under her hat and as she handed it over I - much to DD and DS's mortification - asked very politely about their hand washing policy. She looked new and I wanted to make sure she would do it at least if prompted. She said 'oh yes, we wash our hands', gave me the cheese, rearranged her fringe again and turned immediately to serve another customer barehanded. I didn't feel there was any particular danger in this case, but I was pretty sure she wasn't following their guidelines and it made me wonder what other hygiene rules she wasn't following.

I didn't want to make a fuss over nothing so checked the food standards website for guidelines (no bare hands on food, no loose hair etc) before going to customer services. I just said very politely that I felt a bit uncomfortable for the reasons above and the lady looked appalled. She called a manager and I explained it to him in the context of her looking quite new and it being a training opportunity. He was brilliant, perfect attitude. He confirmed that everything she had done was against their policies and confirmed that she was new and obviously needed a bit more training. He thanked me for drawing it to their attention without making a big fuss, and assured me the girl's manager would talk to her about it. All sounded very positive and not punitive. Do you think I did the right thing?

The company i work for we arent allowed to wear gloves as clean bare hands are more hygienic! Gloves less likely to change thus more chance of cross contamination

Are you allowed to play with your hair then directly touch the food? I can see the point about bare hands, but it would have been very easy for her to have only touched the cheese through clingfilm or the bag she was putting it in, no need to have any skin to food contact.

YANBU; I would have said something too!

In my local Tesco the deli workers never touch the food with bare hands & they change gloves between items - I've seen them.

I don't mind the bare hands providing they pick the produce up in the packaging iyswim but I'd say something tbh

I think it's faintly hysterical and leading to the world being operated by supermarkets where all produce is vacuum packed into pre-designated portions.

the hair thing is the issue for me rather than the bare hands. I work for a major confectionary firm and we have to have our hair fully covered u derby a mop cap but we do not use gloves, everything is handled by hands as regular washing is far more hygienic

IF I had noticed - and it's a big 'if' I wouldn't have said anything. I'd hate to be 'that' person! And anyway - you're going to get far far worse germs, cooties and contaminants on your hands via door handles, money, trollies etc etc. Unclench - your blood pressure will thank you.

Germs. The work of the devil.

YANBU. A lady sneezed on my cheese once.

I'm not sure I'd have even registered it to be honest. This kind of stuff simply doesn't enter my head to worry about.
I believe a few germs are good for me. I have an excellent immune system and am very rarely ill.

The worker didn't need to wear gloves though.
At most deli counters they pick up the cheese etc with the piece of plastic that they are going to wrap it in, so use once, to handle your cheese and then wrap. No bare hands.

100% hear hear smartiepants. It's a very modern obsession and I'm sure many people would be healthier if they just stopped the endless cycle of worry about germs.

I completely agree about bare hands being more hygienic than gloves, provided they're clean and frequently washed. Training on food counters should, however, include not fiddling with hair and where possible not touching food that won't receive further cooking. In this particular situation it would have been very easy not to touch the actual cheese at all.

I felt it was better to get her some guidance when she'd only been there a few weeks before bad habits became ingrained. She'd obviously already got the main parts of her job sorted, just needed better hygiene (and maybe to learn to act on subtle hints about hand washing!).

I'm not clenched, Ora, honest I knew there'd be some people who wouldn't be at all bothered by it, just wanted to check I wasn't entirely on my own.

I work with children - I'd be a nervous wreck if I worried about germs beyond simple hygiene measures. Though when I used to cook with nursery-age kids there's no way I'd have eaten their snotty saliva-soaked offerings.

I probably wouldn't have noticed or bothered complaining. I know how stressful it is to work in retail so I would only complain about things I consider egregious, if she'd picked her nose for example! However I don't think YWBU. If the manager was being honest with you it sounds like he is going to handle it as a teaching moment rather than being too heavy handed so hopefully it will help her improve.

YABU

YABU

You sound like a right busy body. Is it just supermarket workers you complain about?

Hats are not compulsory in serving food.
Counter staff in the supeemarket I work in receive basic training followed by food hygiene. There may be a short gap where they are trained in the job.
Hand washing is done frequently and training says not to touch face or hair, you have to be aware that you do this though and quite often it is done unconsciously.

Food hygiene is taken very seriously but unfortunately colleagues are only human and can make mistakes.

I did decline to take some weighed chocolates in Thorntons once after the woman serving sneezed on them. Does that count?

I expect the supermarket didn't bother to train her as she was on a workfare placement working for free and when the placement ends, they'll just get another one in.

Yabu I'm afraid. And a bit hysterical to be scared of hair.

I complained recently in a local fish & chip shop after the server coughed into her hand then carried on handling the take-away box & the serving tongs without washing her hands.

We have safe & legal checks to make sure all colleagues know health & hygiene and before you make it on the shop floor you have 3 full days of training & paperwork