To think the bakes in Greggs etc should be warm/hot?

[BobbyBiscuits]

I had not been to Greggs for many years till today, but maybe I missed something. There are cabinets that look like heated ones with the pastries etc. But they are not heated and the blimming thing was cold, like a stodgy rock. I can't imagine running a pasty shop that didn't heat them up. They won't even put it back in the oven...In a microwave is not an option. I'm traumatised. In Sains the pasties are in a hot cabinet?

AIBU or are all shops that sell this stuff like that?
Or this Greggs just blows cos it's in a really shitty area/ I'm a twat and should shut the front door..lol

I had a veggie bake a couple of years ago that I assumed (stupidly) would be warm.

It was not.

It tasted of vomit.

Is it 'Sarah's' pasties in Looe?

I would travel 100 miles for one of those beauties!

nadine90 · Yesterday 23:22

I worked at greggs in 2007 and we didn’t warm pasties up then either. I never asked why.

Can I ask which part of the country you're in? I'm in Newcastle and the one round the corner puts them in the oven, they come out hot, but cool down if they're not bought quickly.

I haven't eaten their pasties etc for years, they used to be really good until about the 90s. I remember cheese & onion pasties being 12p....

No, just in my town there's a Barnecutts, Philps, Rowe's, Warren's and Berrymans and I think a Cornish Oven too but they're a bit poor.

I wouldn't call Greggs tossers for this. Blame the VAT rules.

If they did anything more to ensure their stuff stayed hot, they'd have to charge VAT at the standard rate. VAT applies if food is hot when given to the customer and it has been:

• heated for the purposes of enabling it to be consumed hot
• heated to order
• kept hot after being heated
• provided to a customer in packaging that retains heat (whether or not the packaging was primarily designed for that purpose) or in any other packaging that is specifically designed for hot food
• advertised or marketed in a way that indicates that it’s supplied hot.

Source: Catering, takeaway food (VAT Notice 709/1) - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

I mean of course you can, isn’t that the same for most food places?
you are paying for the time and effort of it being made, the convenience of it being available and also the costs associated with making it (running the oven etc).

I think @nadine90 meant that they wouldn't reheat the pasties if they were cold when given to the customer. I would assume they do cook them in the oven before putting them out for sale, though. I always assumed they were supplied to stores part-baked, to be crisped up in the oven, ideally just before you buy them but no guarantees as this thread shows!

There's one in Launceston. Not worth going to though when there's so many amazing pasties on offer throughout Cornwall

If you want something hot in Greggs, just ask the person serving you what's come out of the oven recently.

I went back yesterday and tried asking if they were hot, and when they came out the oven. The bloke just said (somewhat unconvincingly) 'they're all warm'- It was the same time of day roughly as last time so I chickened out and bought a tuna sandwich, haha.

You should check out one of the Greggs Outlets where they sell the day-old food for pennies. It's £1 or so for a sandwich or baguette from the fridge, you can get boxes of two yum yums for 50p, box of four filled doughnuts for a quid, that sort of thing. Plus they sometimes have bags of "off-cuts" of the millionaires shortbread.

I haven't bought bakes from there though since they're just out in the shop at ambient temperature, and I'm not convinced sausage rolls and meat bakes should be kept out all day, the day after cooking. That seem food hygiene sus.

Echoing the chorus of pasty tax here. The 'higher end' pasty shops often do have hot cabinets and keep the pasties warm hence (some of) the higher price there. But Greggs was always the cheap end of the market. Back many years ago I used to work at a Spinks shop (in the NW) - they did the most amazing pasties and cakes.

But the most incredibly tasty pasties ever are Phat pasties cauliflower, chickpea and onion bhaji pasties. Bloody love them. Ive started ordering boxes of frozen ones to have at home which doesn't help when you're out and about but they are worth it!

@givemushypeasachance I heard about those places, but I don't think they have one anywhere near me sadly. Yeah, the meat bakes that are left at room temp. That seems dodgy AF doesn't it? I did a food hygiene course once for a kitchen job and pretty sure thats a big no-no. But then again loads of people would get sick and complain by now surely if it was that bad?

The one where I live is good in the morning, lunchtime and when schools kick out. Otherwise risky

Yeah I've never fully understood the ambient temperature sausage rolls in regular Greggs shops either - I presume they do comply with food hygiene, because it's so widespread and normal in Greggs surely they would have been prosecuted if it isn't? But back in the day when I worked in a cafe and had food hygiene training, we timed the sausage rolls to be out of the oven and warm at lunch time, and were allowed to sell them "Cooling" at room temperature for up to 4 hours (because of the tax issue). After which we had to refrigerate them and could sell from refrigerated for another 24 hours. We coudn't heat them up again if a customer asked us to, (rightly) for food hygiene reasons.

nobody wanted to buy the refrigerated ones 🙄

I just buy the Greggs frozen stuff from Iceland and cook it at home - got sick of tepid bakes! But appreciate this is no good if you want food on the go, I just like a vegan sausage roll now and then 😋

I’ve never had a cold sausage roll (and I’ve had a few!)

Just don’t shop at Greggs, it’s all shit anyway!

I always choose whichever has about 10 or so left on the tray. If you pick a corned beef pasty when there are two left, it will be cold.

Amazing it's so successful then isn't it?

Greggs are rubbish, we've got a 'Wright's' bakers near us and they DO keep the food warm, much nicer

Don’t, I was really craving one the other day, queued up for what felt like forever, and took a bite into an ice cold sausage roll. I did know about the tax thing but totally forgot, I was devastated 😂

You can always use the click & collect on the app - as long as we have a pick up time of at least 15/20mins then our shops will usually put fresh in so theyre hot out of the oven when you collect

CasperGutman · Today 13:53

I think nadine90 meant that they wouldn't reheat the pasties if they were cold when given to the customer.

Aah! How foolish of me! I thought that wherever she is, the were delivered already cooked...

One of the joys of being in Newcastle is the number of Greggs we have in walking distance from each other so if one doesn't have any fresh bakes, I just walk to the next one. Eventually I'll find a fresh tray.