To think that, unless you know the kitchen they were made in is very clean, homemade edible gifts go straight in the bin

[Bearbehind]

Especially this year

Given we’re sanitising things we touch and are ultra conscious about the spread of germs etc - AIBU to think that if you get edible gifts from someone’s who’s kitchen you either don’t know or don’t think is very clean - you’d just bin it?

I’m not saying you can catch Covid from the food but it’s the principle of not knowing how hygenic stuff is

I’m not a fan of homemade gifts at the best of times - I think a sort of rule should be that unless your homemade items are good enough to sell for actual money, then please don’t do it

No one is going to admit they binned it but I do hope those who would make homemade edible gifts, especially for teachers, this year think twice

How do you eat anything???

Have you never supported a school cake bake sale? Or had food on some sort of school / scout camp which includes some made by the children? How do you cope at buffets at parties and weddings where someone else shock horror might have touched that food before? Or loose fruit and veg at the supermarket? How do you deal with the issue that veg and fruit has been buried in the dirty ground or had bugs on it?

I have a close family member who worked in the field of food hygiene and boy could he tell some stories about it. The aspiring would be mitchelin starred chef who didn't want to pay the going rate for pest control and had the least clean kitchen in the area - worse than the curry houses and the takeaways. The big food factories he went to. The fact that he said there is a real problem with sweet potatoes (yes includes the ones at the supermarket) and you can smell it when cockroaches have been near them.

Seriously, you'd be shocked at the places that you'd think have good practices but don't.

Strangely enough, even though hes seen all this first hand, he'll still eat out and he'd still eat food gifts.

@Badabingbadabum

I would hope that if someone didn't want a gift they would just politely decline.

Exactly. The gift gets into OPs house somehow for her to open. So she must accept it at some point. Just say No Thank you when the person offers it to you.

If your kitchen was rank then I’d just leave the coffee to go cold

You don’t have to look far to see how clean somewhere is

@Bearbehind

zigazig it’s nothing like the old world

HR will be involved in stuff like this going forwards, whether you like it or not

I am not sure you understand what HR is for and what they actually do

You don't have a job, do you? Because you really don't come across as someone who has the smallest clue

Certainly it’s irrational thinking. I’m certainly past the point of deciding I should eat the homemade jam because it tastes better than commercial.

And I’m pretty sure communal office food is pretty much a thing of the past now - for good reason
Nah. If we are ever back in the office it will be because the organisation has decided that social distancing is no longer required, presumably either becuase a vaccine has been successful or it's burnt itself out. So if we are back it will be back to normal. Including cake.

Wow, what a waste of food and your friends' time. At least say "thanks for the thought, but I never eat homemade stuff, you should keep it for someone else".

I love an ongoing cake exchange with a friend.

@Bearbehind

zigazig it’s nothing like the old world

HR will be involved in stuff like this going forwards, whether you like it or not

What makes you say that? Have you a link to support that notion?

I think there's NO WAY that HR would be policing it. It's the same as the council not gritting paths themselves, they facilitate others to do it though by putting out salt bins. No liability for the councils.

It sounds to me as if you have some serious concerns and issues that perhaps you need some professional help with. That's not a flippant jibe, I'm just thinking of all the professional kitchens and the number that get closed down. Up to that point, people have been eating in them... probably you too, unless you source and cook your own food.

It must be miserable to be this anxious and I think rather than getting allies on a thread you could do with support from people who could actually help you.

@Bearbehind

If your kitchen was rank then I’d just leave the coffee to go cold

You don’t have to look far to see how clean somewhere is

that wasn't my question. HOW do you go and check my kitchen in the first place?

Do you ask before sitting down, or do you make an excuse to go and have a look?

I would hope that if someone didn't want a gift they would just politely decline.

I ensure everyone I know understands that I have OCD (diagnosed) and that I won’t accept homemade edible gifts. I apologise and assure them that it’s not personal and that my ‘fussiness’ even applies to my own mother. I don’t think I’ve offended anyone to date.
Occasionally a pupil will bring in cakes from home and I don’t feel I can explain to them why I can’t accept the cakes, so I generally will make a big fuss about how delicious they look, offer a cake back to the giver and their friends (I couldn’t possibly not share such wonderful cakes) and the remaining few will get binned.

@Thinkingg

Wow, what a waste of food and your friends' time. At least say "thanks for the thought, but I never eat homemade stuff, you should keep it for someone else".

I love an ongoing cake exchange with a friend.

That would be a polite and kind 'way out'.

@JaceLancs

I’m making Xmas pudding gin this year - hope the alcohol will kill off any germs Last time I made it I had many repeat orders so assuming it will be popular this time

OMG you've just reminded me, I've got a jar of out-of-date Christmas mince meat in the cupboard, I'm absolutely making Christmas Gin tomorrow! 2020 just got a load more festive!

I think it would be a little weird to give home-made gifts this year unless to very close family/friends who you knew wanted them, just because some people are squeamish. But I don't think that has to do with how clean the kitchen is. If someone gave me home-made iced biscuits, I would be aware they and their toddler probably breathed all over them doing it, and while I would like to say I wouldn't think about covid, I have to say I probably would.

OTOH, aside from covid, I'm a bit cautious about home-made things that really need sterilising. Not worried about cake etc. But I have been given too many chutney-type things where someone obviously has no clue what 'sterile' means and they've just gone mouldy already. Or the lid never popped down.

My brother is the worst for this. He always gives us home made things but he doesn't understand the basics. If you're making chutney etc.., you need the jars sterile and hot; you need the spoon you're using to get the chutney into the jars sterile, you need the chutney hot. If you're making something more risky (like preserved fruit without vinegar), you might need to can it as well, to be sure. An awful lot of people I know seem to think you can just run the jars through the dishwasher, leave them hanging around for a while, make the chutney and spoon it into jars when it's cool, and that's it.

I work in a hospital and people are still bringing in home-made cake which gets eaten very quickly! I'll be taking some in myself tomorrow and it will be gone by lunchtime.

It’s so easy to get a 5 star hygiene rating at restaurants, saying that as a former restaurant manager. If you’re nice to the inspector you might even know the time and date of a surprise visit from them. Places with a known rat problem get full stars if they can prove it’s being worked on, I know one that’s had the same problem with rats for years and it’s still got 5 stars.

You’d be shocked at the dropped utensils that staff, often on minimum wage, then pick up and use straight away. Not saying I’d tolerate it but I defiantly had at least one person per shift try doing that.

Also Turtle Bay is insanely popular around where I live, they’ve never gotten a hygiene rating above 3. So no livelihoods don’t depend on it unless you’ve got shit covered walls and staff that know nothing about food temperatures.

I’m exactly like you! I don’t eat hand made gifts unless I know how and by who they have been made! I don’t find it a problem, and my friends know how meticulous I am with certain things, so don’t offer me these gifts anyway.

@DriveThroughSwabber

I work in a hospital and people are still bringing in home-made cake which gets eaten very quickly! I'll be taking some in myself tomorrow and it will be gone by lunchtime.

Literally about to post the same thing. Home made treats are still going strong in the hospital I work in. It's not going to give you Covid, and most other things your immune system will deal with.

Say I invite you for a coffee, how does that work? Do you request to see my kitchen first? Do you pretend you need the loo and sneak in to have a peek? With my old neighbour the smell hit you when you opened the frontdoor. She fostered kids and the social workers had meetings sitting on the wall in her front garden. God forgive them for leaving the kids there.

Blimey - some people really are strange

I can’t believe people think I don’t work and don’t have a clue when it’s them saying communal food will just be fine in offices before Covid is well over

It seems there’s

• those who will eat anything regardless of where it came from
• those who think everyone will love whatever they make regardless of whether the recipient wants it
• those who’d rather just not receive such things

Each to their own I guess

Someone I know makes us a lot of homemade food which always tasted lovely. Then I noticed when she was in our home she used the bathroom without washing her hands! From then I've accepted anything she's made graciously but binned it...

Right now? I think I’d be wary. One of my Year 11 boys made me dinky lemon square biscuits that spelled out my name last Christmas. I was ecstatic! Now, I definitely think I’d be wary.

I don't tend to take food gifts from people. My mother is similar so I think it's something I've learned. It's not much of an issue as it's rare people give us food and if they do DH will eat it...

If I'm at work I don't take homemade cakes and treats.

I know other people like this so there are people who this bothers but I'd say we are in the minority.

communal food will just be fine in offices before Covid is well over

Communal food is literally fine in the office I work in, in a busy hospital.

This concept, of throwing away homemade food gifts, is one I had never come across before reading MN. I view it as a phenomenon existing only in words online. Everyone I know IRL happily eats homemade cake, sweets etc.

Sounds OTT to me even with Covid around.

I love bake sales, but that's probably because I love cake