verylittlehelps

Hi all,

So I work nights stacking shelves, and have done for about 5 years now. Cold chain seems to be non existent in my store on fresh and frozen departments throughout the night, despite colleagues and myself complaining to managers about it.
For example, some of our fresh team will have an entire delivery of yogurt cages plus their back stock (sometimes up to 12 cages ish) on the shop floor for the ENTIRE shift. (10pm-6am) and the managers just shrug their shoulders when you say something - until we have an audit due, that’s the only time they do anything about it.
Same goes for aisles such as meat, cheese etc, out of the fridge all night while people work.

Last year, my mum had a Tesco delivery (picked from our store) and she opened up a yogurt which had mould in it. She checked the other 3 from the multi pack and found mould on two more. She complained, Tesco said some rubbish about how things can be pierced in transit etc and refunded her. Hard to believe when the yogurts come with a cardboard box over the top but hey ho, plus we checked and there were no holes.
I complained to my senior night manager about this, who brushed it off, and nothing happened, made out like I was making a big deal over nothing.

Anyway. She was put off for a long time by this but started getting them again with her delivery, and has had food poisoning all this week which she thinks is down to the yogurts. She felt funny after having one, left it a day or so and felt ok, had another and now has all the food poisoning symptoms.

So my question is, how do I take my complaints about staff breaching the cold chain and lack of management enforcement further?

My partner (also works the same shifts as me) has gone through protector line, but I know that goes to my store managers boss then to SM etc until it filters down to my managers, who I doubt will do anything. Or they might for a day or two then stop. It’s also a pain using protector line because if you do it anonymous the managers go around questioning everyone who did it as though they take it personally that someone complained.

Thanks in advance for any help you can give

I'd still use the protector line as it'll involve/alert people outside the store.

Though if you were to prepared to ruffle feathers, you could refuse to pack out stock that's broken the cold chain, but granted I know that approach is easier said than done.

This seems to be common practice.  I remember seeing dot com trolleys sitting for over an hour after they had been picked in the store I worked in.

Is there no union rep on nights? Obviously the management are ignoring any protestations made by the team, your rep could step in and raise the team's concerns.
You should also have a store H&S rep, who should be made aware of the cold chain ruling not being adhered to.
Your rep and the H&S rep have monthly meetings, when they should be discussing this. Then there is the store forum, which is attended by the SM, union rep and H&S rep, you can raise your concerns through this, and contrary to what they'll have you think, you do not have to put your name on the card, nor should the SM declare that they won't discuss it as its not signed, or the " not a store issue" chestnut.
Any questions put to the forum should be minuted, as should the responses and next steps on the issue. All minutes of the meeting should then be displayed on the notice board.
Your other option would be for the team to place a group greivance against the night managers for breaching Tesco policies.

Although the cold chain is an important part of a job on dairy/ frozen it is pointless to bring it to anyone’s attention within Tesco for the following reasons.
Staff are not given enough time to  keep moving stock between shop floor and chillers constantly , Tesco could resolve the issue them selves by managing stock better and not having back stock that is not needed for days, thus reducing handling .
Also Tesco have the occasional blitz on the cold chain and then at Christmas everything falls apart when stock does not fit back in chiller.

Protector line is useless.. your complaint will got to your group PM who will pass it to the store manager to sort, who will ignore it and it will be forgotten about..

At least thats what happened with the call in my store

Hmm, I thought only in-store employee-employer issues got passed to the PM  to sort out, I was under the impression anything that concerns healty and safety, trading standards, fraud etc would be passed on to the responsible external regulatory body for investigation?

Food standards agency should be interested......contact them,it’s definitely a health risk.

 I've discussed this issue with the EH (Scot) and they are not interested until it is proved that contaminated food has been sold.
My issue was with overfilled freezers, the top items being defrosted. - and the meat aisle stock pulled off of lorry and onto shop floor and left out all night - Not interested!
I often wonder how many dodgy tums, doses of the Two-Bob-Bits and the occasional deceased pensioner is down to these practices. >:D

I'd say this is common in every store. Particularly the dairy departments where the cages, even when sorted, contain enough varied stuff that it can take someone half an hour to properly work one while rotating stock. Seeing 4 or 5 cages plus some dollies out is certainly common in our store which means at least some stuff being out for, realistically, 3hrs at a time if not more.

With the current crackdown on overtime and excess hours it's a single person just trying to get the job done that they'll get picked up on if they try and work otherwise. The time that it takes in our store (due to layout) to get a cage out and put it back means even someone working a small amount of cages will probably spend an hour in time just to move things on and off the shop floor - that's the difference between getting 2 extra cages worked or not and you can guess which the managers would rather have done.

I've seen the produce team leave out all chilled items for most of the night. There is no where to put it whilst dot com are in so early.

Yeah, our produce are left out from 10pm to 6:30am, cream cakes are left for about 2 hours, sandwiches are usually about an hour and half to 2 hours depending on how much is there, Yoghurts excess cages are left there from around 10 till 3, meat trays are left from 10 till 5, so just normal for our store....

Raised it before and its "there's cold air blowing in the aisles its fine"

Make a docunentary of this blatant disregard of the cold chain rule, blackmail the people partner with proof of the managers lack of due dilligence saying you won't turn it in if they do something about it. And then email a copy to the food standards agency and trading standards, get the media involved to (make sure they pay you for it.)

I think that you need to be realistic this practise is not just tesco but also most other retailers realistily I have seen a pallet of frozen out in a discounter and a pallet of fresh out at Morris ons.

The cold chain rule exists because it highlight an important health and safety issue, if chilled or frozen food has been left out of the chilled environment for longer than 20 minutes the risk of foodbourne illnesses increases for the customers that pay for it. It's an issue where the importance shouldn't be downplayed just because of how common the practice is.

The FSA wouldn't be worth the money they're on even though they're funded by the tax payers if they're in cahoots with the supermarket, their function in society is what it says on the tin, food standards, part of which is hygeine and the cold chain rule being followed. Get evidence and send a copy off, if they give you some Mickey Mouse BS send it to the press.

I would not like to be in the shoes of any food safety agency if following an outbreak of a serious nature it was proven they had be forewarned that breaches of cold chain had been occurring in a store held to be responsible for the outbreak.  Heaven help them if a senior citizen died as a result.

I think I am one of a few Fresh workers that bother with the chain and I am constantly reminding some of my more lazier colleagues to adhere to it so we do not end up giving our customers food poisoning.

If the depot didn't stack our deliveries so badly we could get them out much faster than having to clean up a whole case of exploded yoghurt, or the shelf on the shelved cage crushing half the stock.

Even if we manage to get a cage of stock worked within the 20 minute chain time, when it's taken back into the chiller, the fans have been switched off inside while delivery is being pre-sorted. 

happens all the time at our store, basicaly delivery is left on the shop floor until its done regardless of time.

Cold chain, what cold chain 😂 in the store I work the frozen aisle and two fresh aisles are decked for gang fills nightly 🤦‍â™,️

Mickey Mouse at it's matey boyist, wouldn't expect anything less from the Covid hub of the supermarket world.

Doesn't the Hub pick up cold-chain issues? The evidence would be there for all to see on CCTV, including exact time out of cold-chain. It would only take an official a couple of minutes to check!?

If an email where sent to the Hub warning them of the issue, and it could be proven at a later date (using their own CCTV footage) that it remained an issue. surely this would prove that Tesco is complicit at a corporate level in turning a blind eye to unlawful/unsafe practices.

Also check the Safe and Legal book for the chilled section, on the front page it states similar to... 'this document may be used in a court of law '. If information in this book has been falsified then surely this is a fraud issue as-well as a H&S issue.

If somebody where of a mind to, they could create a petition on change.org along the lines of; 'petition to force Tesco to adhere to cold-chain rules in-store' or something similar. If this petition developed legs it would 'break-out'  of the grasp of the 'official' stake-holders and move beyond their surely tacit ambivalence and force them to acknowledge that it IS an issue. The comments section of such a petition (if popular) would be the end to justify the means, especially if those comments contained details of many and varied breaches from many and varied stores/employees. If 'popular', and I stress this as a requirement for its effectiveness, there would not be a rug big enough for Tesco to brush the issue under. 

Just a thought.

the hub picks up what the hub wants to pick up so no i doubt it.

Quote from: optout on 15-09-20, 06:51PM
Doesn't the Hub pick up cold-chain issues? The evidence would be there for all to see on CCTV, including exact time out of cold-chain. It would only take an official a couple of minutes to check!?

If an email where sent to the Hub warning them of the issue, and it could be proven at a later date (using their own CCTV footage) that it remained an issue. surely this would prove that Tesco is complicit at a corporate level in turning a blind eye to unlawful/unsafe practices.

Also check the Safe and Legal book for the chilled section, on the front page it states similar to... 'this document may be used in a court of law '. If information in this book has been falsified then surely this is a fraud issue as-well as a H&S issue.

If somebody where of a mind to, they could create a petition on change.org along the lines of; 'petition to force Tesco to adhere to cold-chain rules in-store' or something similar. If this petition developed legs it would 'break-out'  of the grasp of the 'official' stake-holders and move beyond their surely tacit ambivalence and force them to acknowledge that it IS an issue. The comments section of such a petition (if popular) would be the end to justify the means, especially if those comments contained details of many and varied breaches from many and varied stores/employees. If 'popular', and I stress this as a requirement for its effectiveness, there would not be a rug big enough for Tesco to brush the issue under. 

Just a thought.

They would still just be met with punitive fines though, the government needs to protect the interests of the largest market share holder, why else would the CMA allow the Booker merger and Tesco received a relatively puny fine for the accounting scandal?

Are there any tesco stores out there that DO adhere to the correct cold-chain procedure?

Quote from: optout on 25-09-20, 06:40PM
Are there any tesco stores out there that DO adhere to the correct cold-chain procedure?

Nope! The only way this company can attain the cold-chain procedure is by having adequate staff levels, for which will never be the case.

My store does but we don't have a night team. Delivery is bright out two cages at a time and worked by fresh team so more than one to a cage.  After delivery is done they rumble then go on break. Overs are then sorted in the fridge and worked cage by cage by single person. There may be more than one person doing this but they work a sorted cage each.

Sorry VLH members all jobs in utopia (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/utopia)  are filled  :o  :)

What size store is that red shoes? And may I ask any openings haha

It's a SS and we trade 0700-2300 Mon-Sat and 0800-2200 on Sun.

I will also add that I have worked in six different stores, in England and Scotland and I have never seen anything but good practice around cold chain.

In my time I visited a considerable number of stores, I'm glad I didn't try to count cold chain abuses, it would have been to big a number to remember.

Quote from: Redshoes on 27-09-20, 07:28AM
I will also add that I have worked in six different stores, in England and Scotland and I have never seen anything but good practice around cold chain.

Then you are very much in the minority and observing Tescos practices in rose tinted glasses, most managers of the mickey mouse variety, which is most that I've encountered at Tesco (12/14 of them were) operate on the premise that the only rules that should be followed are the ones they can't get away with breaking.

 8-) don't you know anything about colour coordination...the glasses match the shoes, so rose tinted...obviously ;)  ;D

I swear this site brings out the weird in people.

On one side of the coin we have redshoes who is determined with his pro tesco posts (given the nature of this site, you have to admire the tenacity), on the opposite we have someone who dosen't even work for tesco anymore, but has severe obsession, alongside a man who spends his free time stop clocking  cages.

And theres me sitting here on a Sunday afternoon posting s**t.

In summary we're all saddos.

Quote from: Redshoes on 26-09-20, 03:38AM
My store does but we don't have a night team. Delivery is bright out two cages at a time and worked by fresh team so more than one to a cage.  After delivery is done they rumble then go on break. Overs are then sorted in the fridge and worked cage by cage by single person. There may be more than one person doing this but they work a sorted cage each.

So can I ask...is your fresh team ring fenced, from answering continuous checkout support calls?

Quote from: alf on 27-09-20, 01:47PM
I swear this site brings out the weird in people.

On one side of the coin we have redshoes who is determined with his pro tesco posts (given the nature of this site, you have to admire the tenacity), on the opposite we have someone who dosen't even work for tesco anymore, but has severe obsession, alongside a man who spends his free time stop clocking  cages.

And theres me sitting here on a Sunday afternoon posting s**t.

In summary we're all saddos.

It can seem like that sometimes but I’m certain it’s still better to care about something than nothing until there is nothing to care about. And we’re not there… yet.

Quote from: Redshoes on 26-09-20, 03:38AM
My store does but we don't have a night team. Delivery is bright out two cages at a time and worked by fresh team so more than one to a cage.  After delivery is done they rumble then go on break. Overs are then sorted in the fridge and worked cage by cage by single person. There may be more than one person doing this but they work a sorted cage each.

Yes that's a good solution.
Our store has no dotcom but we make same profit or more than those with dotcom.  But we do not have team.  Two frozen aisles covered by one employee.  3 produce aisles covered just by one employee.  4 dairy aisles by 3 employees.  So stock is always out for hours. Yoghurts can be out for 6 hours on shop floor daily.  It has been like that since I remember.

Quote from: lucgeo on 27-09-20, 02:41PM

Quote from: Redshoes on 26-09-20, 03:38AM
My store does but we don't have a night team. Delivery is bright out two cages at a time and worked by fresh team so more than one to a cage.  After delivery is done they rumble then go on break. Overs are then sorted in the fridge and worked cage by cage by single person. There may be more than one person doing this but they work a sorted cage each.

So can I ask...is your fresh team ring fenced, from answering continuous checkout support calls?

Nope, but as a team work two cages it's one at a time that answer checkout calls but other Depts do too. Fresh are not the only people working in the mornings. 
I have had nearly 30 years with the company and the cold chain has always been the same. I have never seen it ignored. We find fresh food abandoned on shelves throughout the store, we don't put this back out to sell either.  I don't get that I am mocked and not believed by saying I have seen an important food hygiene rule followed. I have worked in six stores and I have never seen anything else, it's just not worth it. The complaints and returns must be very high if a basic rule like this is ignored. It's not a matter of following the company line, it's a matter of selling food that is fit for consumption. If your store ignores the rules, report it, don't sell food to people that could cause serious harm. Shame on you if you iouiaccept this as a common practice and therefore not an issue.

Lets be grateful that at least 0.15% of UK stores may follow the rules, possibly.

At xmas our fridgescare to full when overnight deliveries arrive and the milk is frequently just put outside by the fire exit . Although where I live that would keep it in the cold chain lol

Quote from: Redshoes on 28-09-20, 08:01AM

Quote from: lucgeo on 27-09-20, 02:41PM

Quote from: Redshoes on 26-09-20, 03:38AM
My store does but we don't have a night team. Delivery is bright out two cages at a time and worked by fresh team so more than one to a cage.  After delivery is done they rumble then go on break. Overs are then sorted in the fridge and worked cage by cage by single person. There may be more than one person doing this but they work a sorted cage each.

So can I ask...is your fresh team ring fenced, from answering continuous checkout support calls?

Nope, but as a team work two cages it's one at a time that answer checkout calls but other Depts do too. Fresh are not the only people working in the mornings. 
I have had nearly 30 years with the company and the cold chain has always been the same. I have never seen it ignored. We find fresh food abandoned on shelves throughout the store, we don't put this back out to sell either.  I don't get that I am mocked and not believed by saying I have seen an important food hygiene rule followed. I have worked in six stores and I have never seen anything else, it's just not worth it. The complaints and returns must be very high if a basic rule like this is ignored. It's not a matter of following the company line, it's a matter of selling food that is fit for consumption. If your store ignores the rules, report it, don't sell food to people that could cause serious harm. Shame on you if you iouiaccept this as a common practice and therefore not an issue.

Either you have worked in stores with a very small fresh and frozen department or you have lots and lots of staff to do these cages in 20 minutes i dont believe you can do every cage within the 20 minute rule?,also from the comment you made earlier do you not do the backstock first? or after delivery?

@ Redshoes
It's not a case of mocking you, and the disbelief is one of incredulity, rather than accusing you of being untruthful. The fact that you have worked over thirty years in six stores, and never witnessed the cold chain rule being disregarded, would suggest have been extremely fortunate by being placed in well run/ managed stores.

I have to say, up until about 10 years ago, the cages were always worked or returned within the 20 mins, it was commonplace and part of the accepted routine for timings to be  written on cages, as worked e.g. Day, date, time, am/pm, to be worked, or back stock. Half worked cages were condensed with worked put on to back stock and unworked put at front for first to go out. The cages were date rotated in the chillers. But that's when the dept's were fully manned, and the majority on full time.
Now you have the same cages going in and out...Fred's on his four hour shift, pulls cage out, gets called to checkout, cage goes back in chiller ( sometimes) meanwhile Freda starts shift and pulls same cage out, and starts working the same stock, some of which won't go out, but Fred didn't put it on back stock cage. Fred goes for his break, meanwhile Freda gets called to checkout, cage goes back in chiller ( maybe)...repeat. It can take hours for one cage to be fully worked, whilst other cages are being continually pushed to the back of the chiller, remaining unworked.
Your description of how your fresh team works is somewhat unique, in that you have two working a cage to begin with, only one required to answer a checkout call, and their timed routines appear unaffected, in that they get to have their breaks on time, rumble and then finish their routines by end of play  ???
It is the managers that are ignoring the cold chain rule, and the CA's protestations, the shame lies squarely on their shoulders. It is they that declare it a common practice and therefore not an issue. CA's report it to the powers that be, it gets ignored, then the CA's get it in the neck for taking it out of store. This is happening on a daily basis in the majority of stores, as the comments from other VLH members will testify.

Delivery is worked as soon as it comes in, as the store opens. The backstock is turned the night before and before the store closes. There is actually not a lot of it. It's all hands to fresh in our store in the mornings to get the delivery done as quickly as possible.
I have worked in only large stores, a big extra for a long time and a SS.
I find it shocking that we accept bad practice and that when stated that some stores do not follow bad practice it is seen as being the few rather than the many.

It's ALL HANDS every morning to work fresh  :o  How long for ???

No wonder the fresh team are on top of everything, they're using everybody else's allocated hours...and only one team member need answer a red call ???

I'm seeing cracks papered over in Tesco Shangri La store.

In my store the dairy night staff don’t even know what the chill chain is! 6 months ago the whole dairy team left or changed departments and were  replaced with new staff, they’ve been told nothing, they are never expected to work quickly so they have no idea that it’s unnaceptable to leave chilled stock on the shop floor for hours at a time. Not one of them works a cage in less than an hour yet nothing is said to them...if you point it out to the managers they do nothing about it.

The chill chain has always been broken from time to time in my store, it used to be by a few minutes here and there but now it’s beyond a joke. I won’t buy certain chilled products from my store now because I don’t want to risk food poisoning....fresh sandwiches are a definite no go.

To add, I've once reported a FSA violation at Tesco anonymously to the relevent government body, they asked for my name and derailed the report and spoke to me like i was chocolate in their peanut butter, the government are in cahoots with Tesco.

What happens with chill things that are abandoned by customers as they shop. For example you find a joint of beef on the tin beans.

We should get told to put it in waste if it's not cold to the touch, but even witj warm products that are meant to be chilled, most managers say put it back on the shelf even when its clearly been out for longer than 20 mins.

In our store it would go onto waste

I think everything gets wasted now...which is a crying shame  :-X
When I was a kid, the local butcher had a whole lamb, pig and beef cuts hanging up in the shop all day. Joints were cut from it, and they were put back in the big fridge at end of day, to come out the next. Bacon bones were given free ( for the dog mister  :-[ ) everything was done on the smell test.
At one time, anything found on shop floor that was salvageable, was transferred up to the canteen for the staff lunches. Boxes of eggs with some broken were taken in the back, and full boxes made up for sale, cracked were sent to canteen for breakfast or for baking. OOC  long life tins, crisps, biscuits etc..were wasted and put out for staff to help themselves.
The amount of money lost now is shameful. Rather than have more staff to rotate stock, get it out on the shelves, monitor the aisles whilst doing it, has been replaced with accepted % of losses in stocktake for shoplifting, negative book stocks and missing stock, which can be as much as 100k (5 full timers ) in medium sized stores. Replaced with less staff, more waste, more shoplifting, all monitored by newly installed CCTV, whose main aim seems to be to monitor the staff for the slightest misdemeanour (easy prey) rather than bother to even pursue shoplifters out of the store ( Yep they've cut back on security staff ) never mind through the courts.
This, apparently, is progress  :-X

There is nothing about supermarkets that is progress.

Progress the excuse to cut back..........expect more from the few.Who just want to get through their shift without any drama and get out of the place.