AIBU to think open bakery items in M&S are unhygienic?

[Guthealing]

Went to m and s on the way home - it was busy. I was absolutely shocked at the bakery area and then nearer the front of the store a table with unpackaged loaves of bread ?

As it was after school there were children there and I saw 2 touch some of the pastries , people were looking at them talking and breathing all over them and one woman coughed 🤮 the loaves of bread at the other side were being picked up and put down , a child was moving them about, how can this be hygienic??! Why is the bakery area not covered in some way? I usually go to Waitrose and their bakery items are in a cabinet at least. M and s isn’t cheap so why are they not more hygienic!!!!

Yeah I don't but any loose bakery items, even the covered ones. People are gross. I'll only buy if they're packed in a box or something. I literally saw a woman drop a donut on the floor and put it back in Lidl today. And no I didn't say anything as it was in a very dodgy area 😂

Is it gross. Yes
Will I still eat it also Yes

😂😂😂

I'm immune supressed since 15 years with a really strong biologic drug. I have always eaten items from stores like this no problem and am absolutely fine. 🤷🏼‍♀️

I agree it isnt nice to see kids sticking their fingers up their nose then in the danish pastries 😂 but I just don't think about it.... the outside world is far from sterile

I can’t say it bothers me too much. The bread I buy from the bakery is just on a shelf behind the counter.
There is plenty of plastic wrapped crappy bread if you want it.

I don’t like it either. Too many people have low hygiene.

Come on. Our standards are slipping badly. I work with people who come off public transport in the centre of London and come and sit and their desks and type away on their computers. There's no washing of hands. They then fill their water bottles (pushed right up to the tap top) although you are only supposed to pour without contact.
So many people don't give a shit.
Covid hasn't taught enough stupid people anything.

I like M&S food but would never buy any of their delicious looking muffins and breads because they’re just sat there, uncovered, for anyone to cough or fart on!

I saw a dad asking a child to choose a muffin, the child leaned over so their jumper dragged across several muffins while they handled several others before deciding on which one to have. Er… no thanks.

The chances of catching anything problematic from a bakery item like this is minimal.

EHOs don’t seem to have an issue with it, so….🤷‍♀️

I agree and have always found it off putting. I remember picking up the Sourdough bread with tongs, wrestling to get it into a bag without touching it only for the woman at the checkout to grab it with her sweaty hands that she had just picked up a raw chicken with?!

TBH even if it is packed behind the till, it is probably just as bad. A lady behind the deli in my local Morrisons is always scratching her scabby hands before cutting the cooked meats and doesn’t wash her hands before serving.

Wow, what a waste!

Yes i agree. I never buy from an open salad bar either, I found a two pence piece in the coleslaw once! 🤢

Admittedly this was about 10yrs ago in lidl, but they had bread items all stacked up in the open. Some fell onto the floor and a customer picked them up and added them back to the pile!

I'm fine with dried bread items in the open, but not eating food off the supermarket floor.

They do it because market research shows that people mostly love it - it has higher perceived value than wrapped in plastic. Like at a bakery or farmers market. The turn over is high so your risk of getting germs is very low

I am also immunosuppressed and often buy bakery items like this. No problems so far!

Seen to many in Lidls pick up a pastry or loaf with there hand then swap it for another, same for the help yourself sweets kids with runny noses dipping there hands into the sweets so won't buy those either for mine...The plus is tho my dh works at Lidls so when I want a few bakery items he will take them off the first bake before they hit the general public area lol

Eeew.
On the same note, never eat peanuts or crisps unless they are fresh.
When tests were done on random bowls of peanuts in cocktail bars, they were shown to contain more samples of urine and faeces than found in the average toilet bowl.

Yes my local M&S stopped putting their Yumnuts in packaging and I once saw somebody drop one onto the floor before picking it back up and putting it back on the shelf. I won't touch anything like that ever again yuk 😷

This. A friend of mine saw a rat in the bread in Lidl. She carried on going there but I’ve never been in one

Some of us don’t have the option for good immunity though

Ok so there are many packaged options.

Likewise for the refusal to buy uncovered products.

Honestly unbothered. The chances are your kitchen sink has more germs.

I don’t buy it if it’s not wrapped or boxed. I hate that it’s all out in the open. To me, it’s not fear of getting sick. I just find it gross to think about all the hands that may have touched. I once watched a man in Lidl take out every bread roll by hand before deciding which he wanted 🤢