Bread in open bags?

[DijonMustard]

Is there a health & safety issue about the sticky tape around the necks of bread bags coming unstuck, so that the loaves are unsealed on the shelf in the shop?

Op, what were you hoping to do about improperly secured bread?

Have you encountered an issue?

There absolutely are legal consequences to this. It's the reason the courts are so blocked. They've decided it's not even worth the trials anymore....Go straight to jail. Do not pass go... or maybe just don't buy the untapped bread?

As it happens I did have a bread related near miss in M&S the other day. I was about to take a loaf from the shelf but it felt all loose within the bag.

The tag must have come off and If I'd have not stopped, the bread would have fallen out and gone all over the floor. So I pushed that loaf to the back of the shelf and took another one.

Thank goodness. That was close

But they are baked on site.
They haven’t travelled and waited in warehouses.
Places that ARE full of rats, cockroaches etc…. And just plain dust/dirt

I have no idea if there is a H&S issue. But I sure as hell would not buy that bread.

Well they will go nicely with the rat that the other poster mentioned. All god's creatures love bread!

Although different rules for different breads surely, that pappy sliced white of Chorleywood bread is likely to be much more of a slip hazard underfoot than a sturdy slice of granary or sourdough. The pappy bread will be more mushy and slippy, unless of course the sourdough has his companion 'smashed avocado' all over him, then you're asking for trouble.

We didn't knead to read that.

Oh crumbs. I don't know!

OP, the supermarket customer services will refund or replace for you I expect, they wouldn't expect you to put up with it. And for processed foods packaging is part of maintaining freshness and shelf life. It's different for bakery items with a very short shelf life.

Rats will eat through the plastic easily so it's not stopping vermin

It probably just stops the bread falling out on transit

Funny!

How strange many of you are! You must have been very bored indeed on a Saturday morning to pounce on such an innocuous question and make all sorts of bizarre assumptions and accusations 😳

I work in the shop, duh… so I have some responsibility to customers for what I sell. I’m not thinking of complaining, or reporting, or suing or any of the other weird and wonderful things you’ve conjured up. It only takes a tiny bit of common sense to appreciate that there’s a risk of contamination (including from pests) if products that are meant to be sealed are actually open on a shelf overnight. Open bags will also affect BB dates, as bread meant to be sealed will grow stale more quickly than it should have done if the bag is actually open. If after a day or two somebody in the shop re-seals the bag the customer won’t know that it’s been lying open for a couple of days when they decide to buy it, take it home and feed it to their families.

I suppose I shouldn’t really be surprised to find so many wannabe sharks hanging out in the legal section here 😂 Thanks to the very few of you who actually considered the question rather than joining in with the pack 😂

Hang on, you work in the shop, but instead of looking up the store policy or asking your managers about relevant legislation around the sale of bread baked off-site, you came to Mumsnet as your first port of call?

But the packaging and closure isn't really an effective seal. It will slow down the rate that the bread goes stale, and broadly keep it clean and all together, but it could get chewed by rodents or insects could probably enter through the closure anyway.

Plus customers will check the bread themselves before buying it. They won't buy anything that could have been kicking around for a couple of days with the bag open because it won't feel fresh.

There you go with the idiotic assumptions again.

Um, no.

Why idiotic? What does your store's policy currently say about the selling of sealed bread that has become unsealed?

Because that's where you should find your answer, and if there's nothing in policy about it then it's now an issue for management to address.

And for processed foods packaging is part of maintaining freshness and shelf life. It's different for bakery items with a very short shelf life.

I think this too. It's not that bread will go on off even but that it's supposed to be sold sealed. I wouldn't buy one that wasn't.
I don't buy anything not sealed that I don't peel or cook. After working in a supermarket watching grim people handle the bread I just can't.

Ooh I found a pound coin in a loaf of bread once and I was very pleased about it!
😂

entirely irrelevant

If there is an issue, which is unlikely, it’s not a H&S issue but a Food Safety issue. But if the bread is clearly still in the bag there’s unlikely to be a problem there either. There are easier things to tamper with than bread if you want to cause trouble - anything liquid-ish and with a strong-ish flavour, hence the safety seals on jars of food.

If you had said in your 1st post that
You work in the shop selling the bread and either
Your manager / work mate had told you to reseal and sell it
Or
You wanted to canvases opinions because you couldn't find any guidance at work
You would of got much more help and advice rather than witty sarcasm .
Atm it sounds like your back tracking and trying to cover a mistake in either your op or something you did at work.

I am surprised that working anywhere that sell food that you don't know the difference between health and safety and food hygiene and handling.

But to all the pp that have responded with typical but rarely seen any more mn humor.
THANK YOU 😁

This is cheap white bread:

Where are all the “chemicals” and additives?

do you know what this is? Would you ever eat something so full of chemicals?

INGREDIENTS: AQUA (75.8%), AMINO ACIDS (12.6%) (GLUTAMIC ACID
(14%), ASPARTIC ACID (11%), VALINE (9%), ARGININE (8%), LEUCINE (8%), LYSINE (7%), SERINE (7%), PHENYLALANINE (6%), ALANINE (5%), ISOLEUCINE (5%), PROLINE (4%), TYROSINE (3%), THREONINE (3%), GLYCINE (3%), HISTIDINE (2%), METHIONINE (3%), CYSTINE (2%), TRYPTOPHAN (1%)); FATTY ACIDS (9.9%) (OCTADECENOIC ACID (45%), HEXADECANOIC ACID (32%), OCTADECANOIC ACID (12%), EICOSATETRAENOIC ACID (3%), EICOSANOIC ACID (2%), DOCOSANOIC ACID (1%), TETRACOSANOIC ACID (1%), OCTANOIC ACID (<1%), DECANOIC ACID (<1%), DODECANOIC ACID (<1%), TETRADECANOIC ACID (<1%), PENTADECANOIC ACID (<1%), HEPTADECANOIC ACID (<1%), TETRADEČENOIC ACID (<1%), HEXADECENOIC ACID (<1%), EICOSENOIC ACID (<1%), DOCOSENOIC ACID (<1%), OMEGA-6 FATTY ACID: OCTADECADIENOIC ACID (12%), OMEGA-3 FATTY ACID: OCTADECATRIENOIC ACID (<1%), EICOSAPENTAENOIC ACID (EPA) (<1%), OMEGA-3 FATTY ACID: DOCOSAHEXAENOIC ACID (DHA) (<1%)); SUGARS (0.8%) (GLUCOSE (30%), SUCROSE (15%), FRUCTOSE (15%), LACTOSE (15%), MALTOSE (15%), GALACTOSE (15%)); COLOUR (E160c, E160a), E306, E101; FLAVOURS (PHENYLACETALDEHYDE, DODECA-2- ENAL, HEPTA-2-ENAL, HEXADECANAL, OCTADECANAL, PENTAN-2-ONE, BUTAN-2-ONE, ACETALDEHYDE, FORMALDEHYDE, ACETONE); SHELL (E170), ALSO CONTAINS BENZENE & BENZENE DERIVATIVES, ESTERS, FURANS, SULFUR-CONTAINING COMPOUNDS AND TERPENES.

@Ohnonotmeagain You need to add up all those percents.

It's not health and safety.
Food safety is a completely separate area of the law.

With bare hands, after taking fiver from customer and handing over coins as change, reaches for bread with bare hands, plunges it into the slicing machine, shoves it into plastic bag with redtape around the neck and hands it over, bare hands, takes coins as payment…