Is there a way of preventing customers of supermarkets/bakeries from touching the bread?

If I bought bread (which I pretty much don’t) I could buy it already packaged from the bread aisle.

By selling uncooked ready bake bread.

@snowberry, and @talljasperman
Yes, we can warm up any packaged bread in the oven anyway no one needs to buy what they call “fresh bread”.

But do you know of a way of not leaving the paperbag open, and still keep it from sweating?

@flo Have a porous (tiny holes) wrapper.

@flo, doesn’t the sliced bread you get come in a wrapper? Or are you referring to french bread? And doesn’t that come in a paper sleeve?

I buy artisanal sourdough bread a few times each week. It always comes in a paper bag. It is fresh that day. People don’t squeeze the bread.

Put a sign that says “Please do not touch or feed the bread, or tap on the glass”, or “Bread molesters will be prosecuted”

They usually have paper sheets which people are supposed to use to pick things up with (I’m referring usually to donuts and muffins) but there really isn’t any way to force people to use them.

They can put up signs but if people choose to ignore the sign, there’s not a whole lot they can do about it.

That’s why I only buy pre-wrapped bread or find a bakery (where they display things under glass and the workers are required to wear gloves when handling it.)

Where I live now, there aren’t really any bakeries conveniently located but when I used to live in Philly that wasn’t a problem.

I’m not squeamish about stuff like that. I figure two things: 1. We don’t know who touched it with their bare hands at the bakery, during delivery, even if the bread may have fallen on the floor at the bakery or supermarket. 2. We’ve all survived through a time when people were not so germ-phobic. I think if you’re never exposed to germs, you’ll not become immune to them. Just my theory. It’s worked for me, and I hardly ever get sick, and I almost never use anti-bacterial soap.

In my experience, people do not reach into a bag to squeeze for freshness – they squeeze through the bag. I can’t imagine anyone doing what you’re describing. Yuck.

But if it worries you that much, simply don’t buy freshly baked bread. Choose Wonder instead.

If you think the bread’s bad wait until you touch the door handle going into/out of the bakery.

But the crucial difference is that you won’t be ingesting the door handle :)

Spikes in the bread loaves?

Thanks all. I suppose it is called French bread.

@Buttonstc

The germs still get on your hands, which then touch other parts of your body, including your eyes, nose and mouth.

And if someone with Ebola or something, did that?

@Darth

As I mentioned previously, that’s why the first thing I do is thoroughly wash my hands.

My point was that it matters little what’s on the door handle if you wash your hands thoroughly so I don’t care about it.

You can’t very well wash the bread and you will be (unlike the door handle) ingesting it. Hence my comment to that effect.

Ebola is not my primary concern. It’s the flu or common cold and I’m just not vividly enthusiastic about eating bread handled by anybody and everybody (including runny nose unsupervised kids or toddlers). I’d rather get my bread wrapped and sealed.

Anybody else is perfectly free to do as they see fit.

That’s why we live in a free country.

Honestly you’re just as likely to get the flu or cold just by breathing in the same air as someone with them than you are by touching anything they’ve touched (perhaps more likely even).

Ask the bakery manager to post a notice.

@Jonesn4burgers Good idea, just like the instructions on how to wash hands in some toilets.

You can try to put a stand with disposable gloves and a sign at the top of a bread stand saying please for hygienic purposes use gloves to check if the bread is fresh.

By putting the bread out of reach (behind a counter ), and accessible only to staff