Disgusting hygiene standards at Sainsburys

Edwardia

If you look at frozen food, most of it has a star rating which shows how long it should be kept. Secondly. stuff like bread and cheese dries out in the freezer the longer it's kept. The freezer is sucking heat out from the food and the ice crystals damage the cell structure as they freeze and defrost. Strawberries are a good example, unless frozen commercially they defrost as soft and mushy.

So for us we try to use food before it's past its best quality. Most of the stuff in there gets used over a couple of months.

dickydonkin

lilac_lady wrote: »

The animal carcases hung from hooks in the butcher's shop behind the customer queue space with sawdust on the floor to catch the blood.

Morrison's as Doxford Park Sunderland still use sawdust to soak up contamination from the floor.

Rather than maintain or repair their refrigerated units, they seem to prefer to wait until the units are unservicable and in the meantime, many of them leak water onto the floor.

They then pile up sawdust against the units to absorb the water which looks absolutely disgusting - moreso when it has been left for a prolonged period.

Rather than use hygienic absorbent booms or better still - maintain their plant, they have over many years adopted this filthy practice.

dickydonkin

mulronie wrote: »

Think about the logistics and supply-chain of getting a carrot from a farmer's field to your kitchen - the number of potential people/machines touching it before it even hits the supermarket floor, and the number of places it will sit, would surprise you.

Ground > picker's cart > farmer's storage > wholesale warehouse > supermarket depo > individual store.... none of which are the cleanest places in the world, with a big stinky diesel vehicle hauling them from place to place along motorways - and don't get me started on air freight!

The checkout girl/in-store pickers hygiene is the least of your worries - hence why I thought everyone at least rinsed fruit & veg before eating!!

I suspect that when a carrot reaches customers kitchen, it wont have even been touched by human hand.

Most will be mechanically harvested, mechanically graded then mechanically washed and mechanically packed.

They will be mechanically handled during the logistics process and if pre-packed - will not be touched at all before reaching the consumers kitchen.

ScarletRaven

dickydonkin wrote: »

Morrison's as Doxford Park Sunderland still use sawdust to soak up contamination from the floor.

Rather than maintain or repair their refrigerated units, they seem to prefer to wait until the units are unservicable and in the meantime, many of them leak water onto the floor.

They then pile up sawdust against the units to absorb the water which looks absolutely disgusting - moreso when it has been left for a prolonged period.

Rather than use hygienic absorbent booms or better still - maintain their plant, they have over many years adopted this filthy practice.

That's not a local thing, the Morrison's I used to work for did the same. There was once a leak from the sink in the produce section, the wines section is behind produce so all the water was spreading through to there as well, same piles of sawdust method was used over both departments for 2 days until it was fixed. Looked awful and began to smell weird, very offputting for customers.

dickydonkin wrote: »

I suspect that when a carrot reaches customers kitchen, it wont have even been touched by human hand.

Most will be mechanically harvested, mechanically graded then mechanically washed and mechanically packed.

They will be mechanically handled during the logistics process and if pre-packed - will not be touched at all before reaching the consumers kitchen.

And what about the loose carrots that are sold that a lot of people tend to prefer? They've at least been touched by the produce staff, not to mention rifled through by many customers, some of which from experience of observation have some very questionable hygiene standards themselves... Once had a customer come through my till with a really bad runny nose. He obviously didn't have a tissue so proceeded to wipe his nose a few times with his bare hand :eek: I felt sick having to touch his items and take his money to be honest, and could only think about the goods he may have touched that other people would then be buying. It's not just farm and shop staff that may come in contact with your food, remember that.

Middy

dickydonkin wrote: »

Morrison's as Doxford Park Sunderland still use sawdust to soak up contamination from the floor.

Rather than maintain or repair their refrigerated units, they seem to prefer to wait until the units are unservicable and in the meantime, many of them leak water onto the floor.

They then pile up sawdust against the units to absorb the water which looks absolutely disgusting - moreso when it has been left for a prolonged period.

Rather than use hygienic absorbent booms or better still - maintain their plant, they have over many years adopted this filthy practice.

Sainsburys use the Zorbas (I think that is what they are called) - yellow and white strips that absorb about 20 times their own weight in water. We have problems with our chillers and at least one chiller and freezer has them.

Customers moan why can't we replace them. Simple answer is that the store needs to be closed to do it as the power needs to be shut off and let the stuff drain, remove them, install the new ones, let the new chillers to settle down, switch them on and bring them back to the temperature. Plus not h&s in moving large items like this when customers are about. Its cheaper to repair them than to lose a day's trade.

DCFC79

I checked the other day and the member of staff who served me at the sainsburys deli used no gloves but used the piece of plastic to pic up the meat and then wrap the meat in the plastic, bag it and label it.

mulronie

ScarletRaven wrote: »

They've at least been touched by the produce staff, not to mention rifled through by many customers, some of which from experience of observation have some very questionable hygiene standards themselves... Once had a customer come through my till with a really bad runny nose.

I hadn't considered the other-customer angle... Makes my skin crawl thinking about all the mucky paws that must touch sweets in pick 'n' mix!

dickydonkin

ScarletRaven wrote: »

And what about the loose carrots that are sold that a lot of people tend to prefer? They've at least been touched by the produce staff, not to mention rifled through by many customers, some of which from experience of observation have some very questionable hygiene standards themselves...

Bearing in mind what the carrots are grown in and what they are fed on - a grubby hand or two should be the least of worries!

Edwardia

I bought frozen langoustines from Morrisons and they stank. Closer inspection revealed that they had defrosted and refrozen so I'm not at all surprised by the state of the chillers tbh.

I was in Waitrose and noticed a sign saying Waitrose recommends washing fruit and vegetables before use, which I've not seen anywhere else.

Organic food is often pre-packaged so that it doesn't get muddled in with other non-organic food. No idea whether that means it's mechanically harvested and packed though.

dickydonkin

Middy wrote: »

Customers moan why can't we replace them. Simple answer is that the store needs to be closed to do it as the power needs to be shut off and let the stuff drain, remove them, install the new ones, let the new chillers to settle down, switch them on and bring them back to the temperature. Plus not h&s in moving large items like this when customers are about. Its cheaper to repair them than to lose a day's trade.

And that highlights my point.

If maintenance of the chillers is not carried out, when the unit eventually breaks down - which it invariably will - then the above will have to be carried out anyway - very likely at a loss of product and more inconvenience to the retailer, staff and customers.

Planned preventative maintenance is always more economical than having to react to a breakdown.