Something I experienced on SaltSpring Island while just starting my career into baking almost halted interest in the industry dead in my tracks!

I was working at Country Grocer as a baker doing my normal thing, I was new and had no idea what was what in the slightest. I thought all was going well until the head bakery department rep came to our store for a visit. I was mixing and doing the dividing/moulding while my manager was working on the oven.

All seemed well, I was quick to pickup the fundamentals of the job but there was one key aspect no one educated me about till that department rep came to our store. He reminded me of Pepé Le Pew with his accent and cologne so pungent it would rival a skunks.

So Pepé steps up to me and starts grilling me about details, over & under mixing, relaxing dough, terminology, I was eager to learn and was trying to absorb as much as I could.

He asked if I knew the reason for soaking seeds and continued to go over and reach into the seed bucket pulling out a small soggy handful. “Without soaking they do not get digested properly and just pass right through the human body” he said while squishing some seeds giving an example of how soft they are. He then put a small amount in his mouth only to hurriedly spit it out. Pepé had bitten into mouse droppings 🥴🤢🤮

It seems that we had a rodent problem and what Pepé spat out was just the beginning of a long investigation into an ongoing issue that my manager had long been ignoring. Where we stored the multigrain seeds was not safe from rodents and they would get into the bag leaving behind droppings. Those seeds would get used by my manager despite having a hole in the bag he never investigated himself as to why. So for countless years he was selling mouse dropping multigrain bread and no one not even myself had any idea, hard to tell amongst all the other seeds once soaked.

That wasn’t what turned me off though, it was one simple thought having been confronted with food contamination for the first time. If no one has ever realized our multigrain bread contained mouse droppings or returned one of our loaves because of it, what else goes into bakery goods that no one will ever be aware of?

Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!!!

Thats it @d00k13 OUT

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