Vent: My whole bakery had to toss a batch because of mislabeled flour bags

I went to the supply store in Portland last week and picked up what I thought was bread flour. Turns out someone mislabeled a whole pallet of all-purpose flour as bread flour. I didn't notice until I pulled my loaves out of the oven and they were flat and dense. I lost about 40 pounds of dough and had to refund four wholesale orders. The store manager admitted they had complaints but didn't put up a sign. I'm going back today to check every bag myself before I buy. Has anyone else had supply mixups like this mess up your baking?

3 comments

3 Comments

xenam8417d ago

Flip side of this - you caught it before it went out the door to customers, so that's a win in the quality control department. Half the bakeries I've worked with wouldn't even notice until someone complained.

emma_jones17d ago

Respectfully, catching something late still means it should have been caught earlier. Fixing the mistake at the end isn't really a win, it's just doing the job you're supposed to do.

grantc8017d ago

Yeah, isn't it funny how we beat ourselves up over stuff like this? I've had mornings where I caught a whole batch of croissants that got overproofed and I just stood there staring at them like I failed. But honestly, that's exactly the kind of thing that separates a good bakery from a place that just throws stuff in the oven and hopes for the best. I've worked at spots where the owner would have just brushed off a slightly burnt bottom on a loaf and called it "rustic" or whatever. So yeah, you did your job right.