To think this is grim food hygiene?

[Lismore]

I’ve just made my regular stop at Gloucester services on the M5.

They apparently have 4 million visitors per year. How is it good food hygiene to have most of them (not to mention flie) file past open plates of cakes and biscuits?

Admittedly it’s good for my teeth as I usually love a bit of cake but would never buy one from here.

How is it allowed by the environmental health people?

Add silent farts to this too eeeeewww

Your photo looks like lots of National Trust cafes (but you get a better class of germ there).

Actually PPs are right, they normally have cloches.

Makes me nostalgic for a cafe in Treherbert (South Wales) where the cafe owner left apple tarts, mince pies, cake slices etc out and uncovered every single day. I bought a cherry bakewell once and it was stale, also weirdly chewy like toffee.

You’re right. Forget the Broad Street Pump, you’ve clearly uncovered a major health disaster. The lives and health of 4 million visitors a year will be saved be ending this despicable practice.

A very unpleasant stomach bug if a fly has laid eggs on your cake😉

That could be said for every bakery that has loaves of bread on shelves behind the counter , old style deli counters of cheese and cooked meats etc, all open.
Can't remember any mass dying of people though.

YANBU but you won't get very far on MN, there's a very unhygienic majority on here when it comes to food (which is weird because the majority is also in favour of daily showers and gets all pearl clutchy at people who shower every other day for environmental reasons).

I'd rather have clean food tbh.

Have you seen what flies like to spend their time sitting on when it’s not food?

Agree, I never buy anything that's been displayed in the open, I was in a farm shop years ago and there was a plate of freshly baked scotch eggs on the counter top, an elderly man was stood next to the counter looking at the food and sneezed several times right over to the plate of scotch eggs. They had to removed them and bin the lot as several of us were watching.

It's balancing risk isn't it. Number of visitors x number of deaths from contaminated carrot cake = 0

A nice glass cloche would keep things fresher and fly free.

I cannot fucking stand bluebottles (especially since I learnt how they actually consume their food ). I'm sure they serve a very important function in the ecosystem but to me they're just filthy little wankers.

I ended up buying a banana- naturally sealed :)

I don't think them being open air is the issue - after all you eat your food in the busy restaurant area open air too. Being touched is slightly different I guess, but you also touching communal cutlery banks, napkins, trays, seats, tables etc so not really any worse. The bakery there is amazing so definitely doesn't put me off.

Tebay's food and cleanliness has been poor whenever we have visited, they have an image but it not carried through. Yes their shop is lovely but overpriced.

Yanbu. I don't want to eat anything that people have coughed over.

And.. see also food allergies. Wouldn't touch them with a barge pole.

Tebay are supposed to be opening another services near Tatton in Cheshire. That's the closest one to me. Not sure I'll bother now.

Same. I never buy bakery products that are on open shelves. I've seen some awful things like people sneezing or coughing into them, school kids messing around and then putting them back on the shelf, toddlers picking them up and then parents making them put them back. 🤢

Presumably if 4 million people go, a cake with 8 slices and a plate of brownies doesn’t stay out too long?

Compared to a kids party or a buffet at a big family ‘do’ this seems civilised.

I hate seeing uncovered food for sale.

For those that done know, Gloucester services is very naice. It has a farm shop and everything! We would choose to stop here over many others.

But it is ridiculously busy. And dog everywhere last time we went (we travel the country a lot 🙄).

I have thought the same when I’ve been there. You don’t know whose mitts have been all over the food. It looks really lovely there but the one time I actually got a meal it was very bland and tasteless.

Is this that stupidly expensive artisan service station in the cotswolds?

I'm used to having my pants pulled down at a service station but this was another level.

Oh this, our M&S bakery is really off-putting, people clearly touch things then change their minds.

I never buy from anywhere like that - not a covid thing - just bleugh. Never mind at Gloucester it'll be £7 a slice or something daft.