06/07/2010 by paul.

I have been pondering on the use of the plastic tongs in Tesco (or other supermatkets, I guess) at the bread counter.
The tongs are placed in the bread roll bins, inferring that you should use them to select your bread rolls and place the rolls into the plastic bag for the check-out. I think that it is meant to be a sort of hygene issue.
I always pick up my rolls with my hands and take them to the check-out and I am dying for someone to tell me off and insist that I use the tongs to handle the rolls. 
I want to ask the manager of Tesco, what exactly is the roll of the tong ?.
If I pick up my roll and take it home, as far as I can see, any germs on the roll, assuming that it has not been rolling around on the floor behind the counter, at any time, are my germs.  Also, if I use the tongs, I will transfer the germs from the previous customer to use the tongs, to my hands, and then in due course to the roll.    Also, if I use the tongs, I will transfer my germs to the tongs and then in due course to the next customer to use the tongs.
It strikes me that the tongs are an excellent means of transferring germs around….but I suspect that those who placed the tongs in the bread bin, meant quite the opposite.         Perhaps, as soon as anyone has used the tongs, an assistant rushes out and sanitises them before they are used by the next customer …!!!    Hmm! I doubt it.
So, come on supermarket manager, ask me to use the tongs…please….then I can ask my question.

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10/06/2009 by paul.

Just seen a report that stated the government was going to withdraw the requirements for shops to display “sell by” and “best before” dates on food, on the basis that this encourages households to throw away their food prematurely. The thinking being, that too much food is thrown away because people are worried about food poisoning…hells bells !  That is when I buy the food because it is reduced.  I also hear that sales of pork in some markets has reduced because people are worried about catching “swine flu”……durr
Then, whilst waiting in the queue at the local post office, I notice all the tobacco packets with “smoking kills” and “smoking kills everyone else around you” etc. in large letters.  But that does not seem to effect the sales…most wierd
Actually, just thought about the premature throwing away of food……must be all the MPs throwing away their old food, since they can alway buy more, and claim it on expenses 

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07/08/2008 by paul.

Visited Mum the other day and my visit happened to coincided with meal time
The hospital trolly dolly delivered a tray with a pre-packaged meal, plus knife, fork and ’soup’ spoon, neatly wrapped in a knapkin.  With due consideration to Mum’s condition, the meal was a pre-mashed selection of meat and 3 veg. 
The tray containing the meal was left on the table in front of Mum. Now I know, that the nurse who looks after Mum (and she is a very attentive young lady…the nurse, that is) would have come along soon to feed Mum, but I thought that I would give it a go, and help Mum have her meal.
The food was pre-mashed, so it was clear which was the veg. (orange for carrots, green for …greens etc.), so goodness why they thought she needed a fork and knife.  Mum can hardly feed herself and the knife was certainly not needed, to say nothing of the fork, which wouldhave been downright dangerous. And, why I wondered, was a Soup spoon supplied. Mum’s mouth is not wide enough for the use of a Soup spoon, a tea spoon would have been more appropriate. 
Having had an attempt at feeding the mash with a soup spoon, we tried the pudding (fruit Yoghurt)…..with the Soup spoon.   Now, I don’t know about most people, but when I get a yoghurt out of the fridge, my preffered method of delivery of yoghurt to the mouth, is definately not a Soup spoon.  You do not have to be a rocket scientist to notice that a Soup spoon does not easily fit into a yoghurt pot.
Aaaaagh!
So how about this for a proposal………..I recall that when Elizabeth first started working for Waitrose, she had to spend time working at various stores, in a variety of roles, getting to understand some of the core “realities” of the business.
Ok, all you health administrators, it is now part of your training, and compulsurory for you to spend 2 days in a hospital bed. You will be bed bound and restricted in movement. You will suffer the indignaties of toilet and food training.
I will bet, upon completion of the training programme, you will put some changes in place          

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14/02/2008 by paul.

It is not that I am getting cranky…but, I did read an article recently, concerning workers in one of the 3rd. world countries (I think it may have been S. Africa….who would probably claim not to be 3rd. world…but any country that has leaders that think HIV can be cured through eating celery, or something like that….must be 3rd world) who are employed to pick / sort / pack grapes for supermarkets. The workers normally wear gloves to protect themselves from the pesticides that are sprayed on the grapes. However, workers are required to supply their own gloves, so many do not, since they cannot afford the cost of the gloves. As a result, they suffer from a variety of rather nasty skin complaints.
Now I know that on the packaging of the bunches of grapes in the supermarket, it advises you to wash the grapes, but how may of us actually do ?
If I buy grapes in the supermarket, I usually eat a load between the checkout and the car and then they are stored in the fridge, to be used for snacking purposes, and very rarely get washed. So, I have started to wonder ….if the pesticides on the grapes attack the hands of the workers (and the article had some rather graphic pictures to illustrate the point), what on earth is the pesticide doing to my insides…………Bugger !   another food product that I have to stop buying    

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