Written by our Reporter MeekJane
When people go to a restaurant or a lounge to eat out, they expect that the facade is as tidy as the kitchen. Equally when consumers approach a bakery house to buy bread either for wholesale or retail consumption, they expect that everything there is super clean and follows standard ethical procedures to avoid an awry or taste of sand in the bread.
In a situation however where having baked and packaged the bread by a bakery house, the sales reps load the loaves on the floor for the bulk purchasers to convey, it becomes an eyesore and health hazard not just for consumers but for the entire community. Then somehow, when a customer complains of eating sand in a loaf, the company denies it vehemently.
This was what I experienced recently at Blissful Bakery makers of Blissful Bread located at Ayobo. I had gone there to buy bread only for me to observe loaves of bread were poured on the floor by the cashier for a bulk purchaser to deal with by herself. It was a terrible experience and I barely held my peace.
For a company in the food sector, Blissful Bakery is expected to have a cart provided for this purpose. I expect such a bakery house that produces bread for direct consumption to operate with minimum ideal standard.
Surprisingly, a group of defenders will arise in favour of this act. They will regard this as negligible under the aegis of ‘It is God that protects’. While it may be agreed that worse things do happen inside such bakeries, like rats climbing the dough, some consumers have come to terms that it is the leftover of rodents that is baked for the consumers to eat, the discussion of roaches aside. This is part of the reason some people do not eat branded sausage rolls. They are disgusted with the roll of rotten meat.
Food should be taken with utmost care and if an official of the bakery company can do such in the full view and glare of everyone around, it goes to say they’re not properly oriented to be health cautious and the bakery area may not be so clean.
One wonders what is the role of consumer protection agencies such as Federal Competition & Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) in all these? What is the role of Standard Organization of Nigeria (SON) in all these? Are these organizations just set up for armchair criticisms while the health and fate of Nigerian consumers hang in the balance from unscrupulous and unchallant food processing organizations such as Blissful Bakery? The government and its agencies should rise up to this challenge and hold these companies accountable when they err. Consumers live matter too.
With the constant bread price hike, consumers expect nothing short of clean and hygenic food. Please, producers should not disappoint them. This Bakery House has its proposition statement as ‘neat and sweet’, however its operating procedures is anything but ‘neat’.
