A Question For Crafty- food hygiene...

[securespark]

Hi Mate (and anyone else in retail)

I originally trained as a Food Technician, and worked in several food retail and manufacturing/processing establishments from 1985 on.

One of the first things I was taught was, "do NOT cough, sneeze or pick your nose when working with food", and "do NOT lick your fingers to separate plastic bags."

So I am very annoyed to constantly find people in shops doing this.

Last week, I went to a ************* deli counter to find a woman about to serve my egg sandwich, despite having just sneezed into her gloves.

When I asked her to change them, she got very annoyed, until I reminded her why.

Whenever I see people lick their fingers to seperate carrier bags, I remind them it is bad practice. I ask them to discard that bag, go and wash their hands and come back to serve me.

They are absolutely astonished!

Why have standards dropped so much? Apart from your store, matey!!

 

[gcol]

I'm proud of you mate, some people are pigs and need to be educated.

 

[JohnD]

Did you ever get the desire to stick your willy in the bacon-slicer?

 

[notb665]

Did you ever get the desire to stick your willy in the bacon-slicer?

She said he wasn't to.

 

[Spark123]

It always made me wonder why the staff in the sandwich shop in town when I was at college wore golves to handle food and then took the money without removing their gloves nor changing them before serving the next customer.

 

[Fratton sPark]

At last, I finally understand why I aint allowed 2 wipe my a*se with the same hand I pick my nose with. But why on earth should I not be allowed 2 prepare food with it? Is this just H+S gone mad again? I think so!

 

[vokera80e]

Here's a question for you all....

which over the counter fresh food are you unlikley to get a bug from

and this is only what i think...it could be another food aswel as this one?

 

[Gary_M]

Here's a question for you all....

which over the counter food are you unlikley to get a bug from

and this is only what i think...it could be another food aswel as this one?

A tin of beans

.

 

[toffee]

Another gross thing is when people are sweating and wipe their brow then continue to handle food.
I also hate it when people scratch away at their scalp and then handle your food.. yuk.

Also, not a food hygiene risk as such but I hate it when women ( I guess men too) wear strong perfume and through doing hair or just touching watch or neck etc the smell gets onto their hands and then transfers to the sandwich they are making.

 

[pickles]

Here's a question for you all....

which over the counter fresh food are you unlikley to get a bug from

and this is only what i think...it could be another food aswel as this one?

A Lemon.

Lemon juice is a very powerful antiseptic. I always put it on sea food as a bit of insurance against Neptunes revenge

 

[keyplayer]

Here's a question for you all....

which over the counter fresh food are you unlikley to get a bug from

and this is only what i think...it could be another food aswel as this one?

Chips.

 

[vokera80e]

Bang on KEYPLAYER ...unless somebody in the chippy sneezes,and according to stastistics,a sneeze last's for 20 miniutes in the air,or is it longer than that i can't remember.

 

[securespark]

Did you ever get the desire to stick your willy in the bacon-slicer?

She said he wasn't to.

No, but I did sit on it once and got behind with the orders...

 

[Steve]

Another gross thing is when people are sweating and wipe their brow then continue to handle food.

Have you ever been into a commercial kitchen?

Secure, in response to your original post, I am guilty of licking my fingers to seperate carrier bags at the checkout, they are just too smooth and it feels awful to handle them with dry hands. I know one of the other staff takes a wet cloth to the checkout with her, and wets her fingers on that when she needs to.

However, I rarely handle fresh food, we do a selection of fresh produce, but the customers are supposed to bag it themselves, using the bags we provide. If they dont, then its tough titties to them. I am sometimes required to jump on the checkout at short notice and serve customers, and sometimes have mucky hands from what i was doing before. By the time i had gone upstairs, washed and dried my hands, the queue would have doubled in length . . . Working on the checkout gives you dirty hands anyway, everything has a certain amount of grime on it, and when you're serving every other person with a newspaper, the ink rubs off.

I am always tempted to ask the customer to put their loose apple on the till scales, to save me touching it, as i always feel guilty doing it, mucky hands or not. They are supposed to use a bag anyway. We do have the same produce bags available at the checkout, but that defeats the point of us NOT TOUCHING it. customer choice i suppose!

The shops that have an in store deli etc, have more rules, but again, the checkout staff dont generally have food hygiene training. I like to think i have a high standard of person hygiene, however, because I do wash my hands nearly every time i go upstairs to get something (i hate dirty hands). I know i shouldn't lick my fingers, but it makes life so much easier

Sorry i wasnt here yesterday, my router was playing up, it miraculously fixed itself this morning.

 

[JohnD]

Perhaps a tub of wet wipes by the checkout would help.