To ask server to have clean hands?

[TreadLightly3]

I went into my usual deli this afternoon to buy some ham (they slice it for you) and as I approached the counter I realised that the guy serving (one of the regular people who works there) was coming in from the back and had just put a bin down (no gloves). He came to serve me and I asked for the ham. I was hoping he was going to wash his hands/put on gloves but he didn’t, he reached straight into the display fridge for the ham. As he started to unwrap it I said “please could you put gloves on as you’ve just being doing the bin?” As I expected he wasn’t pleased to be told what do do and responded “yes, I’m just unwrapping it” (emphasis on unwrapping - i.e. in a bit of an annoyed way). He then proceeded to unwrap the cling film from the ham with his bin-emptying hands and finally put gloves on when he’d finished that which I think is a bit gross and probably not what H&S for catering advises.

I felt embarrassed for making a fuss but also grossed out by the situation.

WIBU?!

It's not at all unreasonable for you to want him to wash his hands. It's a huge breach of hygiene standards for him to not have done so. I'd speak to a manager there, at the very least.

Thanks @coldandsad i was hoping I wasn’t being unreasonable but you’d think he’d at least have been a bit less rude about it

Yuck, I wouldn’t have bought anything and would avoid this deli in future.

I did a basic food hygiene course years ago and remember some of it. Hand washing is so important. Even after doing things like just going outside and opening a door. Doing the bins? For goodness sake, of course he should have washed his hands, and before he unwrapped anything! Tell a manager, tell your local environmental health, and perhaps find somewhere else to go because if they are happy to serve food with bin-hands goodness knows what else they're doing.

I watched a cafe worker go into the loo with her apron on the other day , go to the loo and go back to serve someone .. I am not overly worried about germs but that isn't right is it ?? I didn't complain because I figured it was normal practice but it did give me the ick !

A while ago in my local supermarket noticed similar things and reported them to food standards, they did an inspection and gave them a warning. Since then I always see them with gloves on. I felt a bit bad at first but God knows how many people they could have posioned by breaching the hygene requirements!

Some people are just absolutely ignorant. I work in a kitchen and my hands are dry from constant handwashing i.e after every single task. It's through force of habit.
I doubt this rude man would have washed his hands, had you said nothing. Even if he planned on doing that, then it's irrelevant because his bin hands had already handled the packaging, which would have contaminated the meat or your hands.

The worst one I saw was the lady in the local pie shop serving pies off the shelf with no gloves, then handling money and moving on to the next customer. I didn't buy my pie and I complained to head office who said they would revisit food hygiene in that store.

That's disgusting. I'm not neurotic about hygiene but I always wash my hands after putting the bin out in my own house. I would make a complaint.

I was once in a queue in an ice cream shop, where a man was scooping ice cream and serving cones, and taking cash etc. He had gloves on, but they seemed to be to protect his hands from the messy ice cream, rather than the other way round. When a bit melted and ran down his thumb, he LICKED IT OFF and carried on serving. I huffed loudly and walked out, and he shouted after me that he was sorry about the queue but he'd be with me in a minute. I nearly just carried on and walked out, but for once I was proud of myself for actually saying something, and I turned back round and said that ACTUALLY I was walking out because he'd just licked ice cream off his gloves and then carried on serving. Then I walked out, and several other people followed.

I was really cross though, because I had really wanted that ice cream.

I called into Mcdees one morning after work to grab bite to eat before bed. I watched the woman finish mopping the floor then make up my order without washing her hands.
She walked over to give it me and I asked for another and explained what I had just seen. Worst of it was that she was a team manager. It was grim.
I've worked in kitchens for years and wouldn't dream of doing that.

At least yours used gloves! Our local butchers and deli don’t - and have no issues with touching one meat after another without washing hands in between. Went twice, never again after that 🤢

I would have walked out.

Been a while since I worked in the food industry, but we employed strict hygiene.

OMG these examples are gross! Back in the days when Gregg's used to sell unwrapped French sticks and bloomers,etc,I'd get annoyed by the staff touching money then touching the unwrapped bread. I actually challenged a member of staff once,when she took a customer's money,then picked up my unwrapped loaf without washing her hands. Her response? 'But I'm wearing latex gloves'. I replied 'That's all very well,but you've touched the money then the bread with the gloves on!'. Unfortunately,she just couldn't understand why I was making a fuss. Some people just don't 'get it'. They think the all-protective,blue,latex gloves miraculously shed any germs!

Well, given that I always wash my hands after doing anything that involves my own domestic bin, I certainly wouldn't want to buy anything from someone who had just been dealing with industrial bins.

Bloody disgusting, and yes, as pp said, you need to report this to the manager and environmental health.

A few years back a server in Co-Op sneezes then continued to serve my ham. I was a bit dunctruck at the timembut took the ham back and told her why I couldn't accept it and she just huffed. Spoke to manager who said he would have a word.

A week later she was sitting onn the floor waiting for the next shift to come on then stood up and wa sleaning with her back to the seving shelf and zuzzed her hair.

Never went back for years. There is a grubby mare in Morrisons who I wont go to if she is on duty..another non hand washer

Zuzzed?! Please enlighten me!

My office at work was just across the corridor from the visitor toilet. It was very very rare that a man ever washed his hands after peeing. 🤮

I work on a hot food counter and we're always washing our hands and changing our gloves it's just basic hygiene

I’d probably have left

Yeah that's pretty rank. Even when I was doing minimum wage supposedly unskilled food prep work in food factories we were constantly washing hands, changing gloves, washing down lines etc. Most retail staff don't seem to follow proper procedure wrt ime. And don't even get me started on the charmingly rustic plastic free fresh bread racks you find in supermarkets, each with their own serving of bogies, shit, e-coli and anything else the general public wipes on them while squeezing for quality. Boak

There is a grubby mare in Morrisons who I wont go to if she is on duty..another non hand washer

Strange coincidence there's one at my local Morrisons on who works on the fresh pizza counter. She was mopping the floor, when I approached the counter, she put down the mop, wiped her hands on her overalls and then came over to serve me.

She asked me what pizza base I wanted, I asked her to wash her hands first she refused. That was the day I stopped buying pizza because I started thinking about the poor hand hygiene of the people handling the pre-prepared chilled pizzas.

Bleurgh.

I went to a butchers on the market and the server used bare hands to pick and weigh mince, then sausages and bagged it all up and took money and gave change, all without washing hands. They have a five star food hygiene rating! I've not been back, my change was damp from meat juice I was too shocked to say anything.

Worst I saw was a well known pizza restaurant. After we'd eaten. Cutting open the mozzarella and tipping the balls straight into the HANDWASHING SINK!!!!!!!!!!!! (in the open cooking area)

When he came over to serve me I'd have said 'it's ok, I can wait while you wash your hands' before anything else if he didn't immediately go to wash them.

I wouldn't be shopping there from now on if this is what the staff think is acceptable.