Hygiene in Sandwich Shops/Cafes

Azari

artbaron wrote: »

I'm not sure there are stats on recent shops visited in the case of most illnesses but if you're right, the reason is that most meat from a butchers gets cooked, and cooking kills bacteria. In a sandwich shop there's no heating to be done so whatever gets onto the food goes into your belly and, if you're unlucky, turns around and exits at high speed.

The reason butchers have to be more careful than most is because the product they are selling is an ideal place for pathogens to multiply. Even if the contaminated product is cooked the toxins and enzymes the pathogens produce whilst multiplying can still cause a very nasty case of food poisoning.

Needless to say this doesn't happen very often. Just guessing but it may be because the money does not stay warm enough for the bacteria to survive.

pmduk

Azari wrote: »

Agreed.

Years ago the people serving food didn't handle the money at all, there was always a separate cashier. For some reason they suddenly decided that money wasn't a health risk any more.

It's far more likely to be a desire to save the cashier's salary.

Storck

paddyrg wrote: »

Wearing gloves throughout is at best pointless and shows a deep misunderstanding of the whole point of the gloves! They're not there to protect the wearer's hands from all that evil mayonaise

Maybe they are there to protect the wearer from the food, allergies etc.

stephen77

Storck wrote: »

Maybe they are there to protect the wearer from the food, allergies etc.

If your that allergic to the food that you can not touch it.
A food shop is not the right place for you to be working.

The possible exception is chilli.

stephen77

Gloves do not offer food safety advantages over clean hands.
When people wear gloves they get false belief they do not need to wash hands etc.

Especially if your buying a sandwich to take away and eat straight away. The bacteria does not have chance to multiply like you would get from a butchers shop where you buy meat and cook it a few days later.

Wash hands with warm water 40c & soap for 45 seconds, then dry. Then sanitise.

earthstorm

their is nothing more dirty and covered in bacteria then money. When i trade at summer fairs/country shows, I always carry bottles of hand sanitizers as your hands are always dirty with handling money and normally the only available water is what you get in porta loos

Money-Saving-King

Pfsyx wrote: »

All the staff were wearing gloves, yet they were handling customers money and preparing sandwiches without ever taking the gloves off.

But this seems a pointless vent though. When the customers are paying they handle money, often twice, once to give it then to receive change. How many times have I ever seen any member of the public then wash their own hands after handling their own money and before eating? The answer is never!

earthstorm

Also in your own home, what are you handling before you eat

tv remote
papers/magazines
pets
chairs
door handles
coats
shoes
etc.

Pfsyx

Money-Saving-King wrote: »

But this seems a pointless vent though. When the customers are paying they handle money, often twice, once to give it then to receive change. How many times have I ever seen any member of the public then wash their own hands after handling their own money and before eating? The answer is never!

You're right of course, but that isn't the point here.

As a customer, there is no legal obligation placed on me with regards to hygiene. If I want to wipe my !!!! with both hands and then eat a sandwich, that's my prerogative.

For the person making that sandwich however, there is a legal obligation to maintain a good standard of personal hygiene, which includes frequent handwashing. Where gloves are being worn all the time for both food prep and cash handling, this handwashing is clearly not taking place.

Azari

pmduk wrote: »

It's far more likely to be a desire to save the cashier's salary.

When I said 'they', I meant TPTP. I'd always assumed it was some sort of regulation that the money was handled separately.

Obviously the butchers would want to get rid of the cashiers as they cost money and took up space. The people who would have come to the conclusion that it wasn't a health risk would have been the regulators.