I was the semi-sucky customer.

[Sapphire Silk]

And no, I've never had anything leak on anything before.

I have, though not chemicals. Had a pinprick hole in the bottom of a milk jug. Looked fine when I picked it up, but by the time I got home I had a small puddle of milk in the bag.

Fortunately, the bag did not leak. Sour milk smell in the car would not have been good.

[roguesqd]

When I was trained as a baggermany moons ago(was my first job in high school) we were trained, chemicals and food do not go in the same bag at all

[Andara Bledin]

My B, I take that one back. The one about the FDA approving a certain amount of bugs in your food.. however..

Don't forget the rodent hair.

If the bagger was posting here, everyone would agree the OP had no reason to yell and was out of line.

Considering that everybody including the OP has said that, I think you might be preaching to the choir.

^-.-^

[Mytical]

As somebody who has mild flares of OCD, no putting chemicals in with my food. Ever. I don't really care if they are each individually triple bagged and those bags are all tied..nope..wouldn't touch the food after. I don't mean things like baking soda (which yes I've had somebody pitch a fit about that)..but drain cleaner..bleach..etc no..nope no way. I will bag it first . So I can sympathize with the OP.

I even went SC once when somebody tried to put Decon into a bag with my hamburger..could have handled that much better. (For those who don't know Decon is rat poison).

[Jay 2K Winger]

I learned when I cashiered at a "Huge" grocery store not to put chemicals with meat/produce/dairy products, and also not to put heavy stuff on top of fragile or smashable items.

I use the same rules as a cashier at the wholesale club, just without bags. Don't put the chemicals next to the meat/produce/dairy products if you can avoid it, etc. I get plenty of customers compliment me on my packing skill.

Except for that guy who apparently worked for the health department. No matter how meticulous I packed his items so no two meat items were touching each other, he still re-packed it. Didn't chew me out or lecture me or otherwise be a SC, just re-organized it in a way that seemed to be more or less the same way I did it, just in a slightly different pattern.

[Tsiyeria]

everyone is aware you eat spiders and bugs in your sleep right? And the FDA allows for a certain amount of insects to be in food? You could eat a black widow in your sleep and die

Untrue. This link is to a column of the Straight Dope, and explains why it isn't true.

As for bagging chemicals with foods, I don't believe it's a personal preference. It's not about whether or not it's ever happened to you, it's a precautionary measure put in place so it never does happen to you.
Perhaps it could have been handled better, but I believe you were correct to call the bagger out on it.