Sweet boxes on Facebook?! 🤢

[Thewiseoneincognito]

I’m a member on a local Facebook buy swap group and it’s constantly spammed with people selling pizza boxes filled with sweets often photographed on a fluffy dog hair infested rug. Does anyone else see them? Does anyone even buy them? The same with the strawberries dipped in chocolate that look absolutely disgusting are another thing I see a lot. What delights do you see on your FB groups?

@Confusedandshaken "People are making a product to sell"

That's fine and they're allowed to do so. What they're not allowed to do is break the law by breaching food safety regulations. PPs here have said that as soon as they ask about hygiene certificates etc posts are withdrawn or sellers get snarky, which does lend itself to them probably not having them.

Why do you think people should be allowed to break the law?

always wonder, with the biscuits embedded in the surface of a tray bake... doesn't the biscuit go stale and soggy?

No. The local bakers does these with oreos and jammy dodgers in. So nice.

We have loads of these on our local Facebook pages. Lots of the sweet boxes around occasions(always poundshop/home bargains sweets), roast dinners seem to be a thing which would be fine and I can see how it would be good for some people but they don’t even make their own Yorkshire puddings, frozen veg and one had no roast potatoes

I've seen lots of the sweet boxes or bags. The ones I've seen locally have actually looked quite nicer presented but my goodness - the calories! My children unfortunately, like me, gain weight quite easily and the sheer amount of sugar in some of these boxes is shocking. There seems to be a trend for "bouquets" of 20 or so chocolate bars displayed in a fan shape. I don't want my kids to have 20 chocolate bars! Goodness knows what the price is.

I have a friend whose a carer and she is actually very talented. The other day she posted a picture of a fruit platter which was literally a tray of strawberries, raspberries etc and a few shop bought sweet things. It looked quite nice but surely anyone could put that together just by doing a 10 minute shop at Tescos. It's a lot healthier than the sweet boxes but I can't understand why anyone would pay catering prices for less than £10's worth of shop bought products.

Some of them probably do have hygiene certificates and basic food hygiene training. You can get a basic food hygiene certificate by doing an online course and you just need to get someone from the council to inspect your kitchen before selling food. I used to do children's cookery classes and it wasn't complicated to set up legally.

I actually thought the chocolate traybakes looked quite good but that may be because I'm on a restricted calorie diet at the moment.

It's the food safety and hygiene that concerns me with these Facebook sellers. If someone got ill, would they even be insured if it turned out to be their product which caused it?

Food hygiene certificates are fairly easy to come by, you can do an online course for about £20. .
Having one is little more than a bit of paper and won’t make someone that doesn’t give a fuck about hygiene anymore conscientious.
Bit of a snobby thread.

You could say the same with anything though- why do people buy a takeaway when they could make it themselves? Because they want something made by someone else and to not have the hassle.

Also home made cakes are expensive and time consuming to make yourself (I'm not including those who have cleared just emptied a packet of jammie dodgers into a box) which is why they are expensive. If you don't like it, don't buy it, and I'm sure those who flout the rules or whose products are not good won't be in business for long.

Very odd. I've seen those too - all together in one big box where the flavours all mingle together so they don't taste the same, in a big box where they'll go hard quickly and with one more set of hands on them before they get to you. Also if the house smells the box will too. If I want to buy loads of sweets, open the packs and chuck them in a box I'll do it myself, thanks!

I saw those boxes on FB and thought they were some kind of a joke, who would buy sweets just randomly thrown together, especially broken ones that they handled with their bare hands.
I also saw lots of bakers on FB, either selling the stuff or just "showing" on baking forums, as most have a ban on selling. Every time I see a "suggestive" post, I know they expect potential buyers to contact them through a DM.
I don't understand people clutching their pearl necklaces at the idea of "oh, so much sugar, the obesity, the diabetes, the fat young children!!!". It's a cake. It's sweets. People buy them because it's sweet, it won't be a diet. Get a grip.

@Lindy2

I've seen lots of the sweet boxes or bags. The ones I've seen locally have actually looked quite nicer presented but my goodness - the calories! My children unfortunately, like me, gain weight quite easily and the sheer amount of sugar in some of these boxes is shocking. There seems to be a trend for "bouquets" of 20 or so chocolate bars displayed in a fan shape. I don't want my kids to have 20 chocolate bars! Goodness knows what the price is.

I have a friend whose a carer and she is actually very talented. The other day she posted a picture of a fruit platter which was literally a tray of strawberries, raspberries etc and a few shop bought sweet things. It looked quite nice but surely anyone could put that together just by doing a 10 minute shop at Tescos. It's a lot healthier than the sweet boxes but I can't understand why anyone would pay catering prices for less than £10's worth of shop bought products.

But the thing is, your friend has gone to the trouble of doing the shop at Tesco and has made something people want to buy. Good on her. The point is, if you buy it, you aren't having to do the shop at Tescos and assemble it yourself.

I can understand people buying slightly wonky home made cakes that might taste pretty good, more than the existence of Mr Kipling's and other factory-produced cakes which are uniformly revolting and a complete waste of calories. In spite of, one assumes, having very good hygiene standards.

@Gingerwhinger1

Food hygiene certificates are fairly easy to come by, you can do an online course for about £20. . Having one is little more than a bit of paper and won’t make someone that doesn’t give a fuck about hygiene anymore conscientious. Bit of a snobby thread.

It's not just about a piece of paper. If you are preparing or selling food you have to be checked by the Council. You also need Public Liability insurance.

Personally I find most of these ads really offputting - but I'm not sure why people are seeing such a big difference between putting £2 worth of sweets in a pizza box and selling it for £10, compared with putting £2 worth of pizza in a pizza box and selling it for £10!

@HarebrightCedarmoon that I understand too.
Especially the genuine ones, with nice filling and icing, where a considerable effort went into good quality ingredients.
One of my pet hates is actually those really beautiful ones, with figures and whatever and a chocolate biscuit base underneath. I know that lots of effort went into the decoration so crushing the bikkies and melting the chocolate was a way of saving time but I'd rather have a great carrot cake with plenty of walnuts and a thick layer of icing.

Selling sweeties from home seems the new fad. I think it can be done appropriately with hygiene measures etc but I would be put off by what you explain!

There’s a lady near me who does it. I don’t really know her of it’s a legit business so instead I’ve bought my son a hamper from online (yes I should have maybe supported the local girl but I have no idea how legit her business is)

Sausage rolls are so much nicer with marshmallows and smarties, I find...
£17 to save you having to spend many seconds opening some packets...

@AlwaysLatte

Sausage rolls are so much nicer with marshmallows and smarties, I find... £17 to save you having to spend many seconds opening some packets...

Two slices of french bread? They are going to be as dry as fuck within a very short time.

@kiwiPlumapple

£21 on my local one for 2 stirrers 2 ‘hot chocolate bombs’ and 2 hollow hearts filled with 4 or 5 haribo

£21 for that! I can only assume people buy that kind of thing in desperation just before Christmas, birthdays, Valentine's Day etc when normal judgement about value for money and whether something is even nice seems to go out of the window. 'I need a present for X, I can't/won't spend time shopping around, this is the first vaguely suitable thing I've seen, I can afford it' is as much thought as some people seem to put into present buying.

@AlwaysLatte

Sausage rolls are so much nicer with marshmallows and smarties, I find... £17 to save you having to spend many seconds opening some packets...

Oh God, that's just grim

@thenightsky
Two slices of french bread? They are going to be as dry as fuck within a very short time.

don't worry, the moisture balance will be redressed by the soggy crackers

@AlwaysLatte

Sausage rolls are so much nicer with marshmallows and smarties, I find... £17 to save you having to spend many seconds opening some packets...

That really isn't so bad - it would cost about £17 to buy all the things in that box. Yes, you'd get about 8 times as much, but not everybody needs family-sized quantities. I can see the appeal for someone who wants a variety without buying tons of food.

@CornishGem1975. I know, but there are countless messages on this thread asking were are the Hygiene Certificates. Hygiene certificates are pretty easy to get an can be passed by anyone with an ounce of common sense, they don't really mean anything.

@askingrandomsonlinemighthelp

You know what? It's often desperate people trying to make a bit of money. Times are hard for a lot of people. It's so upsetting that people are ready to rip the piss out of them. Just leave them to it. My mum used to have to sell jam to try to scrape by when we were kids. Who are you people to be mocking others? Awful bunch of bellends.

Times are hard for everyone. Doesn't mean you can just go and do whatever. Food can be dangerous if not handled properly. There is a reason we have food hygiene certs and scorings.

It's also pretty shit to jsut go and undercut legitimate businesses who are trying to survive by not paying taxes, insurance and all the shebang business should.

I seen a lot of people looking for these things to buy in Facebook. Especially cup cakes and chocolate bouquets. I think there is a market for this stuff.

Nobody might be forced to buy these things but how many customers are friends and family feeling obliged to buy?

I work with somebody who doesn't have loads of money but spends £50+ a time on birthday cakes for her children because her best friend makes them. She started buying them to support her friend's business and now feels stuck with it.

I also have a Facebook friend who does tray bakes and sweet cones. She's Facebook friends with most of the people placing orders on her posts.

Think a lot of these businesses rely heavily on friends and family being willing to overpay for the products out of kindness rather than because they really want to spend 15 quid on a box of Haribo.