Store warns girls for squeezing muffins

[snopes]

Employees at a Tesco grocery store in England are facing criticism for threatening a pair of Italian students with legal action for touching muffins.

http://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2009/09/...1271253656312/

[LadyLockeout]

Legal action? For squeezing muffins? What a load of NFBSK. No, they shouldn't have been fondling food, but either tell them to pay for the damned things, or just kick them out of the store.

Legal action. Over muffins. Good lord.

[crocoduck_hunter]

Wait, you mean it was about the breakfast item? I thought they were using a euphemism.

[Johnny Slick]

OTOH, I sure as heck don't want some Eye-talian touching my muffin-top. In other words, what crocoduck said.

[Christie]

I don't agree with the way Tesco handled this but I do have to say these students did something I really despise. They handled two items, put them back and bought the third. Why? I can understand this with fruit and veggies, after all we wash or peel the skin off produce before consuming them. That's not true with breads and muffins and the like. If it's done through wrapping, fine, right on the product itself though? Thanks but no thanks, figure out another way to determine freshness.

[llewtrah]

Having formerly worked in an Environmental Health Lab (as part of my microbiology days), I'll point out that food regulations required unwrapped cakes, breads and similar be handled with tongs (which can be sterilised) or with gloves (the disposable type). Tongs are provided for customers and I've previously picked Sainsbury up on failure to provide tongs (that was when I was up-to-date on food regs and could quote the regs at them*).

If the girls handled those foodstuffs with bare hands then they should have bought them. Bottom line is they shouldn't have done it and should have paid for the potentially contaminated food. Maybe they refused to pay, in which case the store is within its rights to say they could face legal action.

Most of the regs are Europe-wide anyway so the Italians should have known that handling bakery products in that way was not allowed. Admittedly I've seen handling regs ignored when I've travelled (though my only Italy trip was company business and food came from a company canteen and frankly I'd have happily eaten 2 handled muffins rather than the tepid food I was served).


*I also used Environmental Health "food poisoning from undercooked meats" statistics against a pub-restaurant who tried to refuse to serve my relative a steak that was cooked through rather than rare (he dislikes it rare). By the time I mentioned E coli, the steak was being prepared exactly how he wanted it A thorough knowledge of soldering standards isn't quite so useful these days when I dine out

[Tarquin Farquart]

Apart from the fruit and veg (which you have to pick up, weigh in your hand and stare down in a vaguely menacing manner) is there really any need to touch any unwrapped food?

[MapleLeaf]

Originally Posted by Tarquin Farquart

Apart from the fruit and veg (which you have to pick up, weigh in your hand and stare down in a vaguely menacing manner) is there really any need to touch any unwrapped food?

Do you not know the joys of reaching into the lobster tank to squeeze the lobsters? How else would you know which ones are fresh???

[Tarquin Farquart]

Originally Posted by MapleLeaf

Do you not know the joys of reaching into the lobster tank to squeeze the lobsters? How else would you know which ones are fresh???

Lobster Tank? You've obviously not been to a Tescos before I take it?

[woodness03]

Originally Posted by MapleLeaf

Do you not know the joys of reaching into the lobster tank to squeeze the lobsters? How else would you know which ones are fresh???

Originally Posted by Tarquin Farquart

Lobster Tank? You've obviously not been to a Tescos before I take it?

I thought MapleLeaf was being sarcastic, now I am not sure....

Do people really reach their hands in lobster tanks and squeeze them? (I don't like lobster so I wouldn't know)

[AnglRdr]

Originally Posted by woodness03

I thought MapleLeaf was being sarcastic, now I am not sure....

Do people really reach their hands in lobster tanks and squeeze them? (I don't like lobster so I wouldn't know)

I swear by rapping a knuckle right above the tail. If it sounds hollow, it's perfect.

(And, yeah, MapleLeaf was kidding. I, OTOH, am completely and utterly serious. Not really.)

[Eddylizard]

Originally Posted by llewtrah

I'll point out that food regulations required unwrapped cakes, breads and similar be handled with tongs

Could you expand on the reasons for that, as I've always been a bit curious. Ususally there is a bag of some sort you put your bread rolls in. They are all practically identical.

I'll only be picking up the ones I want to buy, not touching the others, and when I get home I'll be using the same hands to split, fill and eat them.

So just exactly why should I have to fill my bag using something that is harder to win at than those ripoff claw and grab machines in seaside arcades?

[UEL]

Originally Posted by Christie

I can understand this with fruit and veggies, after all we wash or peel the skin off produce before consuming them.

Around here, the problem is that people will pull the husks off corn to inspect, do it three or four times, then grab a half dozen fully husked ears from the table. I watched one husband/wife team husk over 20 ears and discard before they had a dozen they liked.

When I asked the vendors about that, they shrugged and called it the cost of doing business.

[Victoria J]

Originally Posted by LadyLockeout

Legal action? For squeezing muffins? What a load of NFBSK. No, they shouldn't have been fondling food, but either tell them to pay for the damned things, or just kick them out of the store.

Legal action. Over muffins. Good lord.

If you are going to threaten someone with anything then let it be legal action.

I don't see why it should be a "threat" (from the topic not the post quoted above) - "Gott said the store employees told the girls they could face prosecution on a charge of food contamination", if the law is correct that's staing a a fact not a threat.

However I suspect tha law isn't correct. The store has duties re. food contamination and could be fined or shut down. The term will have been used on any food handling courses I imagine. Otherwise it could be a criminal offense though it's not a specific offence - i.e food tampering. The first is enforced by the local council, and the second by the police. It's not action the company could take. (No specialist knowledge - my belief in how this works comes from buying food basically).

The company could take action regarding unpaid for deliberatelt damaged goods as the muffins would need to be thrown away.

Bad - taking 2 young people into the back of the shop for such a minor act, spouting legal gibberish, and acting in what seems like a generally intimidating or threatening manner.

Things that really wouldnn't have been that bad - pointing out that legal action could be taken to force them to pay for the goods.

Victoria J

[Archie2K]

Originally Posted by llewtrah

*I also used Environmental Health "food poisoning from undercooked meats" statistics against a pub-restaurant who tried to refuse to serve my relative a steak that was cooked through rather than rare (he dislikes it rare). By the time I mentioned E coli, the steak was being prepared exactly how he wanted it A thorough knowledge of soldering standards isn't quite so useful these days when I dine out

Why? I'd understand the other way around on food safety grounds, but how much harder is to cook a steak well done rather than rare? It sounds like exceptional laziness, and in which case, maybe they ought to consider a different line of work.

[Archie2K]

Originally Posted by Eddylizard

I'll only be picking up the ones I want to buy, not touching the others, and when I get home I'll be using the same hands to split, fill and eat them.

When you split and fill a roll you are likely to wash your hands before, and eat it soon afterwards. In a shop you aren't likely to be able to wash your hands (though some do provide that alcohol handrub now) and may not be eating said product for a few hours during which time any germs will have had time to multiply. However, I suspect it is more to do with people too lazy and/or inconsiderate to handle food that they don't intend to buy, hence leaving their germs for hours to accumulate in ambient conditions and spread them around to unsuspecting consumers. Also, don't get me started on people who leave chilled/frozen foods like meat around the store in ambient temperatures thus ensuring that they have to be discarded by the first staff member to find it there, all because they are too lazy to put the product back in even the myriad of fridges or freezers that are in every other aisle in any Tesco. Enough to warrant a ?

[Eddylizard]

Originally Posted by Archie2K

Also, don't get me started on people who leave chilled/frozen foods like meat around the store in ambient temperatures thus ensuring that they have to be discarded by the first staff member to find it there, all because they are too lazy to put the product back in even the myriad of fridges or freezers that are in every other aisle in any Tesco. Enough to warrant a ?

Aye it does rub me up the wrong way when I see something discarded on a shelf it does not belong on, presumably because some lazy customer has had a change of mind on buying it. Yes it deserves a double

[crocoduck_hunter]

Originally Posted by Eddylizard

Aye it does rub me up the wrong way when I see something discarded on a shelf it does not belong on, presumably because some lazy customer has had a change of mind on buying it. Yes it deserves a double

That reminds me of the time I was browsing through the breakfast cereals in a local grocery store when I found a bunch of asparagus that had been shoved out of sight behind a box of Frosted Flakes.

Obviously, some kid had waited until his mom's back was turned before insuring that he wouldn't have to eat the dreaded asparagus.

Crocoduck "personally, I like the stuff" Hunter

[TB Tabby]

If they thought the girls were bad, they're lucky they didn't have to deal with...THE COOKIE CRUMBLER.

[llewtrah]

Originally Posted by Eddylizard

Could you expand on the reasons for that, as I've always been a bit curious. Ususally there is a bag of some sort you put your bread rolls in. They are all practically identical.

I'll only be picking up the ones I want to buy, not touching the others, and when I get home I'll be using the same hands to split, fill and eat them.

So just exactly why should I have to fill my bag using something that is harder to win at than those ripoff claw and grab machines in seaside arcades?

In picking up the rolls you want you might touch others! Some people like to rake through the rolls/pastries to find one that (they believe) looks better than the others. Once you've purchased the roll, it's up to you whether you use those same hands to prepare the food or even roll it along a few gutters before consuming it.

Where there are insufficient tongs, I turn a bag inside out, pick the item up by inserting my hand into the bag then turn the bag right way out to enclose the item.

It's just part of food handling - thou shalt not handle the baked goods except with sterilisable/dsposable utensils provided - that is extended to the customer as well as the staff.