Today at work...

[soc_puppet]

I was making hamburger buns. I was about three-quarters of the way through the first shaping, when I felt something sharp and relatively long and sturdy in one of the dough balls. Suspecting it was a rosemary needle that had been caught in the mechanical bread cutter from some herb bread or other, I worked it out of the roll.

It was not rosemary. It was a sharp piece of clear plastic.

I managed to track down the source of the plastic to the lid on one of the flour bins (one of the two types I was using for the buns), but could not guarantee that there wasn't more plastic in either the buns or the flour. So I had to throw out all of the buns and hand-sift over sixty pounds of flour.

My arm is very tired from sifting, but at least I can be sure that no one will be eating plastic!

Comments

[mistressofmuses]

I'm very glad you found the plastic before it wound up in food someone was trying to eat!

(Once I found a chunk of rubber from one of our big spatulas in an already baked loaf of bread at the bakery I worked at. Fortunately, there's a good chance that it was the only chunk, and we were lucky enough that it was our sample loaf, so it didn't go home with anyone, and I was able to throw it away. Unfortunately, there's no guarantee there wasn't more in any of the other loaves that day. And that's not as bad as sharp plastic!)

[vriddy]

Wow, glad you found it in time, although have to redo so much work is infuriating. Blergh!

[oracne]

Yowch!

[alexseanchai]

ouch! but yes, better than the alternative

[jesse_the_k]

Our pastry hero!

[gwydion]

Aiyee!