Malicious Food Tampering vs. Stupid Food Thieves

[Ginger Tea]

Using the peanut allergy, should I be in the shoes of "my foods always going missing, tomorrow I'm bringing in a peanut butter sandwich." I would only do that if I would myself eat said sandwich should it not be taken.

Chances are I would find it un eaten in the bin than the fridge as someone would probably grab the bag, look into it and see the peanut butter, its hard to miss (unless its hidden as a smear under some ham). I don't think said food thief would then put the sandwich back, I am 80% positive that any food thieves that look at their haul see something they don't like just bin it.

I used to use peanut butter instead of regular butter with some cold meat sandwiches, but it would always cover the whole slice and be obvious, I would not have some small section that you couldn't see but only find upon biting into it.

I would not label my food with allergy info as I have none (except possibly for carbonated drinks), it would be sealed so I shouldn't have to worry about cross contamination even if sealed is just "Sandwich bag with a name label sticking it down" or a Ziploc and not full on lock down.

I read some time back on not always working about a Jewish co-worker who would help him/herself to food on the posters desk and one day it was already in his mouth before s/he could say "That contains bacon." which prompted him/her to spit it out dramatically.

If that was me, I would not even mention the bacon, unlike the peanut allergy, bacon isn't life threatening to a Jewish or Muslim persons life, just listed as 'unclean', or if I did comment on the bacon in it, it would be long after they had swallowed that spitting it out would not be an option but full on fingers down the throat if they were as melodramatic as the one I read.

I have every right to have bacon, peanut butter or any other legal food stuffs in my food, I don't give a fuck if you could die eating my food, if today is peanut butter jelly day, and it was something I would eat from time to time.

I wouldn't however taint something with sea food to get back at someone, as the food would have to be something I myself am willing to eat, I wouldn't drop a bag of prawns on the bread before making my ham sarnie on the off chance the cross contamination of a few seconds of touching the bread was minor enough to be a deterrent, even if it has no taste to me, as I wouldn't have prawns on me as I am not a fan of them.

TLDR it would be something I myself would eat and if you might end up in A&E over it tough.
I would NOT spike food, especially if it means I am the first to the fridge and now can not eat my own food.

[MadMike]

My personal belief is, if something bad happens to you as a direct result of something you clearly should not be doing, I have no sympathy for you. I've had food and sodas vanish from the company fridge, and while I didn't do anything harmful, I did shake the hell out of one of the sodas before I put it in the fridge. That was the last time one of my sodas ever got stolen.

There's also the possibility someone might accidentally eat someone else's food (It happened to me on either side once or twice) hence my labeling and precautions above.

And this is the best reason not to use anything toxic or harmful to get back at a food thief. While I have no sympathy for thieves, sometimes mistakes do happen. And I don't like the idea of someone getting sickened or worse because of an innocent mistake.

If I really wanted to get back at a food thief, all I'd have to do is bring in hot wings for lunch. I like them ridiculously hot, and most people can't even get near them, let alone eat them. The one time I got them, the bartender made quite a face when she was bringing them out, holding the plate at arm's length. As she set them down, she told her, "You're insane!"

[s_stabeler]

if you aren't eating it just to mess with the thief, it's more acceptable, but I'd still stick a warning on it, frankly. It takes but a moment- and it reduces the chance of the thief stealing your lunch, if it is an honest mistaker, it'll bring them up short, and if the thief DOES steal your lunch, if they complain, you can say "my lunch had a warning on it about the peanuts- It's hardly my fault if he didn't look at the bag before eating the food."- it's a CYA move, more than anything.

[AmbrosiaWriter]

If you're just bringing a lunch that happens to have peanuts in it (or whatever allergen) for your own enjoyment then my point is moot.

My point stands if the scenario is as presented (you know XXX is stealing your food, you know XXX has YYY allergy, you bring food with YYY ingrediant).

[Ginger Tea]

I would agree with the second line ONLY if said food was tainted somehow and never to be consumed by the owner, if it's an un edible mess (stuffed full of hot sauce or a bottle with urine in it) I am doing myself a bigger disservice than trying to get back at a food thief.

Chances are, the day I spike the food is the day mine doesn't go missing (or the guy is off) and I'm left to starve this time of my own design. It's one thing to loose out on food to someone's sticky fingers and something else altogether to ditch a Nutella sandwich because it's actually chocolate exlax.

Yes mr Peanut allergy would get sick (or perhaps even die) eating my sandwich (although how he could MISS peanut butter is beyond me), but I WILL NOT shape my diet to fit in with the medical needs of others outside of those I personally feed.

Regardless of their reaction sever, fatal or just a trip to the loo, so long as I was going to eat that fucking sandwich at lunch, it matters not what I put in it (so long as it is food safe), it was meant to be me eating it, I will NOT label my food with allergen warnings. I. HAVE. NONE.

You get carted off to the morgue and I lament that I have no fucking lunch, callous? yes, but if you have an allergy and take food that you didn't prepare or know the ingredients to, then you are basically playing Russian roulette to begin with, there was an advert in the UK for Reeses Pieces, lampooning the scene in Deer Hunter, I've never had them and I don't think they have been in the UK long (4 years maybe?) but I think there are 3 fillings, raisin, peanut and a 3rd, though I could be wrong and its only two.

Offering food is a totally different kettle of fish, if I know something has allergens in it I would say so.
That bag of Reeses Pieces, not gonna be offered, same with a bowl of M&M's though shaped differently, a quick glance might not show it and it's too late a hand full is already in the mouth.

[Andara Bledin]

You know, I'm quite shocked at how far people will go to rationalize all sorts of bad behavior in response to bad behavior (last I checked, two wrongs still didn't come out right) rather than take trivial steps to ensure their food can't be stolen in the first place.

Honestly, doing stupid shit to your own food just to get back at someone who may or may not steal it is petty and immature.

[Mr Hero]

I've enjoyed all the responses here so far. Ginger Tea has stated exactly how I feel about each scenario I presented in the OP. And I figured we'd all agree about the trap food because it was not intended for anyone, let alone the consumer.

I have no sympathy for a food thief with diagnosed allergies. Your choices are just setting yourself up for a Darwin. And if the food was taken from a personal fridge, rather than a communal fridge, I have even less sympathy for you.

[Jetfire]

I keep my lunch bag with me, so food stealing isn't an issue for me. (Advantage of working in an office environment).

But if I did have a problem with a food stealer, I wouldn't sabotage, nor will I label any more than just my name on my food. I'd just start complaining to HR and in general, and get louder and louder each time it happens, until something is done about it.

Frankly, if there is someone who steals food, I have to wonder what else they are stealing?

[Ginger Tea]

A few weeks ago I read somewhere that a lot of Thai food is cooked in peanut oil, I've not had Thai or any other kind of Asian takeout, just microwaveable chicken chow mien and the odd tray of sushi from Tesco's on the way to or from work.

I rarely read the ingredients of food I eat, hell it was 3-4 years ago when I found out pork was in scotch eggs and I love eating them, I just never cared to read the label. The day I decide out of boredom to read the label whilst eating one and then commenting on it to a driver was the day two of the office staff were in and one was Asian and could have been (but I never asked) Muslim and the other looked at me as if I was being deliberate about talking about pig based meats in front of him, where as the truth was for all my years eating scotch eggs I never knew the ingredients beyond egg and bread crumbs, the grey tasty bit in the middle was a mystery, I didn't even think it could have been a meat of some kind as it tasted nothing like sandwich meats did or cooked joints.

I don't read the ingredients as I do not suffer from allergies nor am I on a diet that would also cause me to count calories or avoid certain food stuff. So the use of peanut oil in Thai food would never concern me health wise and had I not seen a post somewhere I would to this day not know it was a thing.

So for example I was working a night shift and passed a takeaway and decided to have something from there instead of some meal deal from the supermarket I wouldn't know any of the ingredients nor would I care as I don't suffer from allergies myself and the sea food aversion I have is not medical, more I cant bring myself to eat prawns as they leave the head on them and their beady eyes look back at me, it was the 90's when I last tried eating one and I spent the longest time thinking "Stop looking at me, your dead already, me not eating you isn't going to change that." in the end one of the dogs ate it.

If I don't see the prawn/shrimp or if it is blended or cut up so its not recognisable I can eat it, but not whole, id probably have a buffet of live insects in a bush tucker trial before I willingly eat a whole prawn/shrimp.

Hell I might not even know what I am ordering, it might just end up being a #82 where only the brave try and pronounce the name, I had a #82 from there one time and liked it and decided on a whim to get another.

So I don't know what exactly is in this hypothetical #82 so if there is sea food or peanut oil, I cant be held accountable as I don't have a clue.

Some posts either implied or outright said premeditated when it comes to bringing in food you know your suspect is allergic to, again I am not going to change my eating habits to suit others on the off chance that someone might take offence just as much as literally take it.

I think it was CS (though it could have been not always working) where I read of someone throwing out meals due to them not being vegan, your just a fucking secretary you don't get to dictate what other people eat, its not as if we go around trying to stick a fist full of ham in your gob.

It's not premeditated if I happen to bring food to work that someone is allergic to, even if 9/10 my food vanishes. What I buy or make to bring to work is something that I WANTED to eat in the first place, your health doesn't factor into it.

"Here honey, here's your lunch"
"What's in it?"
"Shrimps stir fried in peanut oil (is that how they use it?) with pasta seasoned with garlic."
"I cant take this to work!"
"Why not?"
"one guys got a sea food allergy, another nuts, ones got celiac and the 4th is convinced he's a vampire."
"Are you going to share the food around?"
"No there's only enough for one here."
"Then what's the fucking problem? you don't want it find the dog can have it."

"Oh but it's not hard to label allergens"
if I know they are there to begin with, but why stop with whats known?

WARNING
This product may contain
Peanuts
Nuts in general
Sea Food
Gluten
...
ETC

print off a few dozen sheets of address lables at work and apply them to everything in the fridge

Apple with said warning lable, can of cola, it says that this is my food and there is a chance that an apple or factory sealed can of coke may contain seafood etc.

I would do that, that is why I just have my name and nothing else, well once I wrote "MY NAME ONLY DO NOT FUCKING EAT." as I had a few days of my Tesco's bags being pilphered and I got into trouble over it, I just said "Oh I label food like that at home because <Guy who got fired lived at my house> will eat anything." and they let me off.

I'm not going out of my way to alter my meal plan to deliberately fuck with you if peanut butter is part of my diet at home and occasionally at work, I might want to have something different every day so not to feel too tied to a routine, hell it might be that peanut butter and ham is the only thing I have left in the fridge.

I stress that I would be eating it should I get to it first, what I am not doing is jizzing in it, pissing in the bottle or going to your food and lacing it with something I know you are allergic to or would make anyone in general sick.

When you say or imply premeditated you are policing the diets of people who have no special dietary concerns, we've seen posts where kids cant bring some chocolate bars to school because of peanuts, granted that's because kids like to share, but willingly handing food out is far different to someone taking your school bag from you opening your lunch box and taking a bite out of your snickers bar.

If the child is allergic then s/he should know that the snickers bar they just stole isn't safe for them, its different if the child took a Mars bar wrapper and carefully resealed a snickers, the label says mars but the contents are not, that's premeditated.

So if schools end up policing food out of the premises then those saying premeditated are IMO headed down towards the same with the staff break fridge, I myself would just remove it and say "Keep it on your desk and don't bring in anything that needs to be kept cool." that or "There's a 7/11 near by, fuck off there at lunch but don't bring it in the building."

[TheHuckster]

Ginger Tea, I think you vastly missed the point.

The point is not to be overly cautious about what food you bring in or how you label them. For sure, one can be allergic to or have a sensitivity to just about anything, and it's not even confined to food, but clothing, perfume, and environmental particles. It doesn't make sense to label every single thing just because someone might be allergic to it.

The point people are making is if your food is being stolen regularly, and if you know who is doing it, and if you know that person happens to have an allergy of some kind, then it is wrong to plant that allergen as sort of a trap if and when they steal food again. That's it. If you are choosing to do something with the intent of causing harm to someone else, either actively or passively, it's wrong and could even be criminal.

This isn't about over-thinking the possibilities of someone inadvertently getting a horrible allergic reaction to something due to some freak accident because things weren't labeled properly. It's all about the person's intentions.

In all of the places I've worked, anyone who shared the kitchen tended to know eachother, and anytime someone had an allergy or some other issue, they would inform us of it, and we'd take the proper precautions.

[Ginger Tea]

Proper precautions goes both ways.

You have an allergy don't take food that you cant check the ingredients for.



Take my prawn pasta co worker quote

Each person has an allergy (even if the garlic one is just "I think I'm a vampire that's why I work nights").

We are all aware of each others allergies (or lack there of in my case), but nothing I am bringing in is destined to be shared, so if it is in a sealed Tupperware container or a ziplock sandwich bag, it has my name on it and that should suffice that "hands off" rules apply.

My sandwich doesn't magically get out of the bag and skull fuck their fruit salad, so cross contamination is a very low risk, it would only be a factor to what I bring in if the simple act of them shaking my hand after I handled food is enough to become a health risk, but in all my jobs I've never had to make physical contact with anyone, nor share a computer where food debris could gather in the keyboard and as the fridge doesn't turn into a food orgy once the door closes, I am not contaminating anyone's food just by having my peanut butter and Ham sandwich or prawn (if I ate it) pasta salad in a sealed container.

I am under no obligation to say "this product contains X Y or Z", the only way that would occur would be shop bought sandwiches.

Everything I would bring in would be something I myself am willing and able to eat, nothing is buried inside as if to catch someone 3 bites into it, for example a smear of peanut butter on some ham, its going to be Ham slathered in peanut butter.

Swap out peanut butter for crab paste and that's how I had some of my sandwiches at school.



IF and this is a big IF, my next or some hypothetical future job had an upfront ban on food types in the fridge then I would abide by it, some can, as I posted a paragraph or 3 above, have severe reactions to just touching someone who held a peanut or some other food stuff.
Should I be in a situation where my food is going missing and the peanut allergy guy is prime suspect, I would not put a smear in my Ham salad sandwich, my peanut butter is always blatantly peanut butter, knife wiped on the top of the bread.

Having an established blanket ban and flaunting it to get back at someone that I would not do.

No bans in place, then what I bring in is none of your concern, once after work I was waiting for the microwave to ping and the house workshy asked me who's mini pizza's were in the freezer (I didn't say they were mine, which they were) I just thought to myself "if you don't know who's they are, then they are not yours, if they are not yours leave them be."

What I am not doing (if I was in this hypothetical situation) is taking some peanut oil and an egg brush and going over every sandwich I make or laying the loaf on top of some freshly cooked prawns, there are no hidden 'traps' the only time it could come into it is if its something store bought or from a take away and I don't care to ask about its allergens risk, as again, I do not have one. I didn't ask what's in the #82 as nothing in it disagreed with me the last time I ate it, I don't know if its got peanut oil or some seafood paste, I don't know nor do I care.

If you can end up in hospital or the morgue due to food allergies, then why are you taking food you didn't make in the first place?

[siead_lietrathua]

i think the difference between what thehuckster and gingertea are saying is (and correct me if i'm wrong):

thehuckster: if you know someone steals your food, don't put something they are allergic to in it with the intention that they will steal and eat it.

gingertea: i'm going to bring the things i personally want to eat. if someone steals my shit, and happens to be allergic to the thing i wanted to eat, that's not my fault because it was my intent to eat it myself.

if this is a correct assessment of both points, and if what really matters is intent, then i think gingertea has it right. a person should be able to bring what they want to eat for lunch, and their name being on the bag should be sufficient. if someone decides to steal something clearly labelled as not theirs, then they are making a conscience choice to play russian roulette. it doesn't matter how detailed the label is, or if allergens are listed, because the tag clearly says "gingertea" and not "billybob", therefore it ain't billybobs. this is like, kindergarten 101.

[TheHuckster]

I agree, and I don't think any of us are disagreeing with either point. The OP, however, implies that the scenario is the former and not the latter... in fact, the thread title even mentions "Malicious Food Tampering."

[Ginger Tea]

And I may have come across strong (not that I'm apologising) as some posts were saying "X is allergic to Y and you bring food in with Y in it you are a bad person." with some even saying criminal intent. Hence why I differentiated between a smear of peanut butter under the ham vs peanut butter instead of butter or margarine. Food safe ingredients vs pissing in your lucosade that B always swigs from (there was a post last year or two about someone who did that at school, obviously s/he had no intention of drinking piss flavoured soda though I can't remember which side of the fence I finally ended on with that case, but its something I didn't do or have any intention of doing.)

No I am a hungry person and X is a tosser. It's not my fault X ate my Y flavoured meal, nor did I force it down their throat and say "choke on that you syphilis infected nose toad."



Some will say "well you know X is renowned for stealing food and allergic to Y so why did you bring food in with Y in it?"
Well I could say the same for "well you know X is renowned for stealing food and a Vegan so why did you bring food with meat in it?"

Same answer "Because I wanted to eat it."

I do admit that there are many premade items I could buy that may indeed contain peanuts or seafood or other allergens without me knowing as I do not need to check, hell if I had not seen a post about peanut oil in most Thai cooking I would never have known, basically someone said "if you have a peanut allergy never order Thai."



Another tale I read was of a woman who often dyed her hair, she noticed her shampoo was running low, and asked if any of her room mates were using it and no one was, she thought she wasn't using that much but let it slide, she dyes her hair again but the brand she uses recommended being mixed with the shampoo for regular top ups, seeing as no one was using her shampoo she thought nothing of filling it with the dye for her next session.
Cue that afternoon and one flat mate screams the house down running out of the shower with blue hair.

She was told no one was using her shampoo and each had a different brand of choice so it wasn't a mistake in the shower, no it was "I'll say I use brand X which is almost out, but to save money I'll use D's brand Z for a week, she wont notice."

EDIT:
Had she said to D "I'm out of my brand could I use yours?" she would have been informed that D's brand Z now contained blue dye and that it would be a very bad idea.

EDIT:
Had a quick scan of the first few posts, by the time I got to writing my initial post I had forgotten that there was an example in the OP that there was "Not fit for human consumption" option, so that might be where I got wires crossed with some posts saying "you did this you are bad" where I read it as "you brought a peanut based meal in knowing there is a peanut allergy food thief around."

So if those saying its a bad idea were posting about food that you wouldn't even give to your dog, then most of my stronger opinion's were based on a misunderstanding on my behalf, however, if those saying it is not a nice thing were still saying what is tantamount to "you know X is a vegan so why did you bring a turkey sandwich in" well I am adamantly un apologetic.

[Seshat]

I have a food allergy that gives me hives. Eventually, if I have enough contact with it, it might develop into anaphylaxis (that's the 'omg get me to hospital nownownow' reaction).

My recommendation: buy a lunch box or bag that's very clearly yours and unmistakeable. Bright purple. Butterflies on it. Or red with trucks, or yellow and orange and biohazard symbols.
Label it as well.
With your lunch box/bag being so distinctive AND labelled, noone has any excuse to take your lunch. Not really much chance of 'oops, it looked just like mine and I didn't read the name'.


Because of my food allergy, I need to check any food that's yellow or orange because of food dyes or spices (my allergen is annatto, a spice with an dying effect similar to turmeric or saffron).
Because of that, I've decided for myself that the distinctive and highly individual lunchbox is the way to go, even if I have to put stickers on it myself, or stencil it or whatever. Prevents ME from accidentally picking up someone else's lunch, too!


Sadly, this is kind of a problem at potluck events. Most people couldn't tell me if 'natural food dye 160d' is in their corn chips.