Touching items in supermarket bakery with your hands

[37anddone]

I think almost every time I have tried to use the 'fresh bakery' in the supermarket (you know, all the breads and whatnot out for you to pick from) - someone has come over and started moving them around with their bare hands.

Not picking one up to take (questionable but tolerable), actually moving items on top out of the way to get the item they want. Customers this is, not the staff.

YABU - why not, you'd do it in the fruit and veg aisle

YANBU - bad manners

You’re so lucky to have a hovel. Paradise! Some of us content ourselves with crouching under a pile of leaves in a ditch at night. We wash barearsed in the early morning dew before you ask about our hygiene. Visiting a ‘Waitrose’ and walking around fumbling with our underpinnings is something we can only aspire to.

I like to lick the loafs to make sure I find the best one. How else to choose?

Totally agree. I have OCD and can't bring myself to get anything from places like this. For a while after Covid M&S carried on individually wrapped everything. However I did develop a serious Portuguese Custard Tart habit, so it might be not be a bad thing that they stopped doing it...

I refuse to buy any bakery type goods that are uncovered in cafes and right when people are queuing and I won't buy from shoes either when they on open display
Marks Spencer ....definitely do it and it's a shame !!

There are quite a lot of food markets in central London with regional and international foods on offer. They get mobbed at lunchtimes. I am sometimes tempted to- but where do the stall holders wash their hands. They are simply stalls in the street?!

That is why I take from the back.

I think this thread has been really good for my diet
Roll on fat club weigh in Saturday 😂

I use open bakeries all the time and I am very much alive* to tell the tale.

*I think? I've never been blessed by the Pope

It's not about being alive to tell the take, it's the thought of having some Neanderthal touching his bollocks or his dick or bogeys and then touching fresh food for others to buy.

This thread reminded me that I had a croissant from the bakery section in Lidl that I bought yesterday. I have just eaten it, bogeys and all :)

I was in Tesco's once waiting to get an uncut loaf when the woman in front if me squeezed the top of every single one! God knows what she was checking for! She then looked at me and said 'oh are you waiting to get one?' I said 'no thank you, not now you've groped them all!' I mean why?? Was she checking for ripeness?? People are so weird! And gross!

Word to the wise, tongs get dropped on the floor and can also be disgusting. Not all of them are attached to the display shelf. This is the reason I only ever buy wrapped goods.

I have thought this many times… Jervis centre in Dublin has escalator beside Brambles cafe. As you go up, you overlook the uncovered cakes, pastries and puddings. Often wondered about what public grimble has been coughed, sneezed, flicked or dropped over them.

Not edible but - the first thing I attack with anti-bacterial, antiviral wipes in a hotel room is the TV remote. I dread to think what previous guests might have been doing with them …

I would never buy loose bakery items. It might look good for the store, but for all the above reasons it's horrible. Used to see one in the rather posh Booths, even worse than the Aldi Lidl ones, stuff just laid out on tables, in summer flies all over it. Was amazed to see recently that M&S are also doing this. Yuk.

It's disgusting.

With fruit and veg it can be washed or peeled.

YANBU.

They are supposed to have a portable hand-wash station with them - I bet most don't though.

So glad you posted it as it makes me feel less like a weirdo for thinking this is gross but has also disturbed me with the number of examples others have posted.

The other day I ordered a coffee from a well known establishment. I handed them my reusable cup. The guy took it from me and handed it to his colleague. Then he ran his fingers through his greasy hair while I paid. Then he handed my drink back to me by the rim of the cup. Why?! So gross.

I do this too. I remember going away in lockdown and the remote was in a zip log bag. I liked this. I think it should be the norm.

It’s recommended that you don’t wash meat joints

https://www.food.gov.uk/safety-hygiene/why-avoiding-cross-contamination-is-important

The tongs are just as grim if they just get slung in on top of the bakery items like I see frequently... What's the point? Same as these people who wear gloves to handle food and then take your cash still wearing said gloves and go straight on to handle the next order with the same gloves 🤢

My dad always points similar out about these by the road caravan/trailers - where do they go to the toilet? 😳😳

It’s nasty.

I only buy from the bakery if it’s super early and I’ve just witnessed the staff pour in a fresh batch. And I use the tongs to get the stuff at the back.

I once told a woman off for handling loaves of bread. I won’t buy from supermarkets where shoppers can handle the bakery items.

I don't buy these items from big supermarkets but I have never seen anyone moving with their bare hands either, but would be grossed out of I did. Like many others said fruit and veg gets washed can't wash a croissant or danish pastry. I have brought these products from smaller stores like co op where they are kept behind a glass cover from coughs and sneezes (assuming people dont cough or sneeze while picking their own pastries with cover open) and I only ever see people use the tongs provided