To wish I’d sent the sandwich back and spoke up? Twice.

[Pumkinfailure]

Recently I have been in 2 different independent sandwich shops and watched the assistant take the money from the person in front of me and then proceed to make my sandwich without washing their hands or wearing gloves. Both times I’ve chickened out of saying anything but this is grim yes? Are there rules about handling money and then preparing food?
So should I have spoke up or given it’s happened in 2 different places AIBU and over hygienic?! I’ve actually pondered reporting this to the local authority but have no idea if I’m being daft!

I believe the advice is that gloves create a false sense of complacency - "I have gloves on therefore my hands are clean" - and so people are less likely to observe hygiene rules.

Sandwich places should definitely be one person making, another taking the cash.

I was in a Five Guys recently and really impressed with the way they all wear gloves

It’s actually really unhygienic to wear gloves.

I work in McDonalds and we have a timed hand-washing system that is strictly adhered to. You also have to wash your hands immediately if you touch your face/hair/anything that could be contaminating. Nobody who handles money would ever be making your food without thoroughly washing their hands first.

I was once in a really busy ice cream shop, a poshish farm shop type place. There was a massive queue and we were waiting quite a while. When we got near the front I watched the bloke, wearing gloves, scoop ice cream into a cone, then notice that it had melted down his gloved fingers, so he PUT HIS FINGERS IN HIS MOUTH AND LICKED IT OFF HIS GLOVE AND CARRIED ON SERVING. I turned to walk out, and he must have assumed it was because I was fed up waiting, so he said "oooh don't worry duck, the queue's moving, I'll serve you next" and for once I was really proud of myself for saying "no, I'm leaving because you just licked your fingers and carried on serving and that's fucking disgusting" and carried on walking out, along with loads of other people.

I'm not normally bothered by hygiene things at home, but that was stomach churning to watch.

I report unashamedly. Literally go straight into the app on my phone and send a pic of the business name/address. The council have the best protocols for improving standards in food handling, and are the only authority to force businesses to do it properly. And I’m not reporting to punish them, but to protect other people in my community.

I always assume that what the staff are willing to do in front of the customers is likely just the tip of the iceberg.

Your stories are making me want to never eat again, by the way.

I worked in a bakery and we used tongs for the roles and cakes and gloves for the sandwiches.

As for it being less hygienic to use gloves because you have to change them every time you touch something, presumably you mean the sandwich then something else? I’m which case, I see no reason not to wear gloves!

As children we were not allowed cones from the ice cream van because our Mum had seen the ice cream man wipe his hands on his handkerchief. All men used cloth ones back then.

This thread is making me feel a bit queasy. It has, however, reminded me of a fantastic Victoria Wood sketch set in a cafe: “Don't have the gateau. I just saw her scratching her armpit with the cake slice.”

I've lived in southeast Asia for a very long time, so I think my mind has to set off whenever I'm at one of these places. I was in Ho Chi Minh City quite a nice Italian place, i'm visually impaired, but I remember I was able to see it giant rat running out from under the table. Ha ha that should read my mind shuts off.

Unless I get very severe food poisoning or other things, I just carry-on. And the even the one place that did give me a severe food poisoning in Vietnam, I have eaten there every single day for maybe one year and was very ill one Time so I let them slide.

I have also been to restaurants in very rural Vietnam, with few foreign tourists, and there have been monkeys in jars. A colleague of mine asked if it was a baby. I have had plastic bags in my soup, bugs that fell in my drinks, ants on my cakes, thankfully I can't see them. So I just eat them. I remember I was given a very cute cake with cinnamon on top for Thanksgiving about two years ago and I asked a tourist if he would like a piece, he then told me it was covered with bugs.

Just realised that wearing gloves during food prep and handling money keeps only one person healthy- the person wearing them! They get to peel off all the microbes and be clean underneath!

No system that allows the person in charge of hygiene to prioritise their own hygiene could ever possibly work. And it doesn’t.

We’ll all be far better off once something simple like uv light or self-sanitising surfaces become commonplace in cafes. Self-interest and laziness are just too strong a force in humans.

Not in Southeast Asia, but coming from a family whose lives are centered around the hospitality industry, I know quite a few people who work in food and beverage. I remember one time A friend of mine was told off for taking somebody's chip as she was bringing them their plate of food.

No you're not BU, this is gross and wrong.

I worked at an M&S cafe for a while and we weren't even allowed to pick up already plated teacakes if we were working the tills!

You're all stressing over the wrong thing. Money cross contamination causes zilch food poisoning etc. Most food poisoning is caused through not washing hands after touching shitty arses and poor food storage. It's not what you see when someone is making your sandwich, it's what you don't see! Stop worrying about copper coins. It's not where the problem is at.

As for it being less hygienic to use gloves because you have to change them every time you touch something, presumably you mean the sandwich then something else? I’m which case, I see no reason not to wear gloves!

There are a multitude of reasons why gloves are unhygienic, but it’s mainly because when wearing gloves, staff don’t take hygiene as seriously; the gloves are used to touch anything and everything and they aren’t changed when they should be.

You can also go into the more complex reasons such as if a hole occurs in the glove, this can release thousands of bacteria from hands that have become warm and moist inside the glove, and of course the high possibility that glove fragments can end up in food.

I stand and watch them in Subway with their cross contamination between the products. When I saw someone pick up raw onion, I asked them to put new gloves on before they made my sandwich. I'm sure they thought I was being picky but I don't want the taste of onion on my sandwich.

My initial thought is eww grim, but thinking about it I have often paid cash and then eaten a sandwich or cake without washing my hands first.

I carry wet wipes so if I'm eating out I wash my hands before touching food. Pack of 4 from bargain shops for 69p.