Posted By Crim One day last week while collecting lunch at a restaurant I overhead a member of the serving staff talking about her blue wound dressing having gone missing and she could not find it anywhere. Can you guess where I found it - in the middle of my steak baguette. I just though I'd see what your thoughts are and wonder what can be done about this type of incident?

Posted By A Campbell Then again... the act of placing a visible dressing did what it says on the tin! Maybe manager should have advised to wear hygeinic glove... hope you got a refund and a free lunch out of it?

Posted By N Smith At least you found it Crim!! I bought a sandwich in a Cafe and was chewing what I thought was a tough piece of meat - turned out to be a blood filled plaster. The girl making my sandwich had cut her finger, put on a plaster (flesh coloured) and then lost the plaster as she finished the sandwich. Unfortunatley she did not realise until I chewed it - Not Nice

Posted By Chris Packham When handling food hands will almost always become contaminated with fats (butter, marge, etc.) and wet. Frequent hand washing will almost certainly occur, as possibly the use of an alcohol-based sanitising rub. All of these will increase the potential for a plaster to become detached. Once this has happened not only is the worker exposed to a high risk of body uptake by sensitising substances, but the reverse, i.e. the contamination of the food by body fluids, will become a real possibility. Thus I would take the view that where a plaster has to be worn on the hand, a suitable glove should then be worn. For optimum protection and dexterity I would go for an unpowdered, natural rubber latex glove rather than vinyl of nitrile. (And if anyone thinks that a natural rubber latex glove of this type is a health hazard, take a look at the real evidence.) Chris

Posted By In need of help Dont want to put a downer on in Crim but incubation for Hep B takes 4-12 weeks. LOL

Posted By SBH Eliminate the problem ... make your own.

Posted By PBH Crim, I would concur with A. Campbell in that the blue plaster did its job. It is unlikely that an EHO would recommend formal action if written systems were in-place (HACCP). Some blue plasters have metal strips and some don't. I personally like flourescent green ones! The Offence would now come under the Food Hygiene (England) Regs 2006 as a contravention of Reg (EC) 852/2004. Anyway nearly time for cider Paul

Posted By lisa mccaulder Good Point from Phil. I think even I would be reluctant to go the enforcement route then!

Posted By Crim Phil, and all, The action I took at the time was to first take the baguette to the person who had lost her plaster and she apologised to me and offered me a replacement meal which I accepted. Later I saw the Manager who also apologised and promised to look further into the incident which he said should not have happened. I also had a look at their hygiene policies and offered some advice that was gratefully accepted. I will not be taking any further action but am interested in your opinions. Among the advice I gave was to go further than to just put rules in place but to ask the "what if" questions and introduce a procedure regarding what to do when, for example, a plaster goes missing.