The python code:
sku_specs = "./item_specs.txt"
def item_specs():
g = open(sku_specs,"r")
lines = g.readlines()
lines = "<br />".join(lines)
return lines
f = open("ouput.txt","a")
f.write("Some stuff"+item_specs()+"more stuff")
f.write("more stuff")
f.close()
The extra characters that show up even if the file is "blank" are 
When I open the file in Notepad++ and "show all symobls" I still get these BOM characters when the .txt file appears to be blank.
Related: How do I remove  from the beginning of a file?
Is it as simple as lines.replace("","") ? Or is there something I am missing?
One Solution:
lines = lines.decode("utf-8-sig")
lines = lines.encode('utf-8','ignore')
