So many bacteria found on baked supermarket rolls

Say wine, snacks or haute cuisine and the food lovers of online food magazine FavorFlav know where to drink, how to eat and what to cook. This time: what exactly is in baked rolls from the supermarket is almost always… a mystery

Do you regularly buy baked rolls in the supermarket? Then read on, because according to the consumer association, supermarkets are falling short in this regard.

A visit to the supermarket can sometimes feel like a treasure hunt, for example when you are looking for a product that supermarket employees have never heard of. But even with something as simple as baked rolls, the information provision is quite dramatically lacking. Except at one supermarket chain…

They paint the rolls brown
According to the law, it must be clearly indicated on all pre-packaged products in the supermarket what the nutritional values and, very importantly, the allergens are. So if you buy a pack of baking rolls to bake at home, the packaging states exactly what is in these rolls. This way, you as a consumer know whether it is safe for you, but also whether you are making a healthy choice if you want to. Because as you could read earlier on FavorFlav, some manufacturers simply try to deceive you by painting white bread brown.

Mysterious supermarket rolls
But well, if you have struggled through the label to know whether this is a wise choice (brown bread is only a good choice if it contains more than 4.5 grams of fiber per 100 grams of product), at least you know what you are getting. However, this is not the case at almost all supermarkets when you fish out a loose, baked roll from those transparent bins.

Dirty bins, unclear ingredients
Apart from the fact that those bins are one of the dirtiest places in the supermarket because they are so poorly maintained, supermarkets are not very generous with information about what exactly is in those rolls. A ‘multi-seed triangle’ is a typical example of how you can be misled: many people think this is a healthy choice. But the fact that there are three sesame seeds, a sprinkle of poppy seeds, and a stray flaxseed stuck to such a roll says nothing about the nutritional value of the dough. Is it white bread, brown, or whole grain?

Supermarkets circumvent the law
And the unfortunate thing is: supermarkets are not legally required to provide information about this. This is because it concerns a product for direct consumption that you put in a bag yourself. However, as the consumer association writes, ‘they are required to put the so-called legal designation (white, brown, or whole grain) on the product or at the shelf. The only supermarket chain that consistently does this properly is Ekoplaza Foodmarqt.

In short, if you want to know exactly what you are buying, baked supermarket rolls may not be for you. If you think ‘I’m going to live on the edge with a mysterious triangle roll with some bacteria for the extra yolo effect’, then go ahead and grab one! But do it with tongs, please.

Source: Consumer Guide