AIBU butchery and hygiene

[marykitty]

There is a small and well known butchery in our village selling local products. There is always a huge line outside of the shop and it has top ratings on google.
Last week I decided to shop there for the first time. I am vegetarian but family is still eating meat. So I wanted to buy as local as possible even if it means more expensive.

I went there twice and I was shocked.
First time, lot of people waiting, probably short of staff. The lady at the counter was managing the cash registrer and serving meat. she was using her bare hands to: handle money and credit cards, prepping raw chicken and directly after slicing cured meat again with the hands, not using any sort of tongs or similar, pushing buttons on the cash register, taking meat pieces again with the bare hands…
I decided to order some ground beef hoping she would use a spoon. Nope. Again, same hands who touched the notes from the previous costumer. Than she gave me a plastic bag and the plastic bag handles were of course covered in ground beef.

I decided it must have been a fluke so I went again few days later. Same concept again and this time the guy at the counter stopped to answer his mobile phone right before it was my turn. This time I asked politely if he could wash his hands or use gloves/tongues since he handled money and his mobile, and he was surprised by my request.
I told him I was for sure not the first client making this remark and he said that actually i was. Nobody ever complained.

i will never go there again but this left me wondering…
AIBU to find this terribile and absolutely unacceptable? Am i being precious? I pay good attention to hygiene and cleaning so maybe i expect too much?

Sorry but I can't believe that OP is the only person in her town to have noticed this. No way would someone accept something handled after handling raw chicken. Also the shop staff and customers would all be poorly. The shop simply wouldn't be able to keep going if this was true.

This goes against all food handling codes so you should report it to your local council’s environmental health department.

I am surprised that any retail butcher would act like this, though - inspections are regular and unannounced, and even the most basic food hygiene training would tell them not to handle raw and cooked meat without washing hands.

I can’t think of any retail system I’ve encountered in the last few years where I have to hand over a credit card to cashier. You either do your own chip and pin, or tap yourself. Was this really recent?

@SliceOfCakeCupOfTea

Sorry but I can't believe that OP is the only person in her town to have noticed this. No way would someone accept something handled after handling raw chicken. Also the shop staff and customers would all be poorly. The shop simply wouldn't be able to keep going if this was true.

I thought this too - a salmonella or e. Coli outbreak would soon be traced back to source.

tongues since he handled money and his mobile, and he was surprised by my request

I'd be pretty surprised if somebody asked me to take out a couple of lamb chops with my tongue because my hands were dirty as well, to be honest.

Shocking breaches of high risk food safety. A qualified butcher should know better than this.
E.Coli can kill

@Georgeskitchen

Shocking breaches of high risk food safety. A qualified butcher should know better than this. E.Coli can kill

A 12 year old would know better let alone a qualified butcher. Hence why it's so unbelievable

@FatFredsFriedEgg

It is really heat resistant. So food has to be cooked at a high enough temp to be sterilised. Not a temperature many want for their beef, steaks or burgers.

It doesn't get inside whole cuts of meat, like steaks, it stays on the surface, where the temperature's higher. It's burgers, mince, sausages etc which have to be thoroughly cooked through to reach bacteria that was on the surface but gets into the centre because of mincing.

I am aware, I just didn't write a whole treatise on it.

My point was that the industry knowledge has changed on what does and does not kill off e-coli!

I've seen young or purposely lazy staff in my current job do it. Albeit I wasn't part of a proper butchers there was cooked and uncooked meat and fish handling involved. While inspections are unannounced they are somewhat predictable. We know they should arrive between X and Y dates, normally at our busiest times and mon-fri. This generally leaves around 20 days with a 2 hour window. In my store I'm also at back of store so we get warning before the inspector even reaches us giving approximately a 10-15 minutes chance to get rid of anything particularly concerning (fortunately not usually needed as we get 5*).

I genuinely think where this kind of lazy hygiene standards go on customers aren't actually watching or they don't car/understand the risk. I agree it's completely disgusting but it genuinely does happen as is down to poor training and laziness (and occasionally impatient customers who aren't prepared to wait).

A woman serving in our excellent local butchers has long straggly hair which she never has tucked under her cap. I now use a different branch just to avoid her hair trailing over everything.

That's certainly against English food hygiene regulations.
But using the word "ground" rather then the usual "minced" makes me wonder what country OP is in ?

If they're that blasé in front of customers imagine what they're like when no one's there.

A butcher touching the meat, that they've just butchered, doesn't bother me so much but it needs to be backed up with a decent handwashing and segregation of meats and preparation areas

Thanks everyone!
For the PPs saying what I wrote is unrealistic and cannot happen...i wish! I am all for supporting small businesses but the hygiene level is unacceptable. I was just surprised to see so many clients and so many good reviews.