30 minutes ago, dcarch said:" What many of you are missing is cleaning the handle. Our hands are a primary source of bad bacteria. Food handlers wear gloves to protect food from contact with skin.. -----"
Billions and billions in many cultures eat with their hands.
You are supposed to eat sushi using your hand.
How do you break bread and eat bread?
dcarch
You eat your own portion. Very few cultures have one pick up food with their hands and stuff it into another person's mouth. If you live alone, it's fairly safe to not wash the handles of your utensils. (as long as you get the rotting food off) The contaminated handles will mostly just carry strains of bacteria and viruses your body is already used to.
One of the examples from the early 2000s' ServSafe manual, where the student is asked to guess how a patient became infected with a food borne illness was about an elderly woman with a compromised immune system being cared for by her middle-aged daughter. The older woman was bed ridden and very weak and could not feed herself. The daughter made a hamburger for her mother, very rare just like the mother wanted. She only used part of a package of meat and stored the rest in the fridge. The woman became ill a few hours later and died within 48 hours. (bet you're about to blame that burger, right? -you're wrong!) The strain of e. coli found in the deceased woman's system did not match any organisms in the hamburger meat or its packaging. There was no cross-contamination with other foods. The e. coli did match a strain the middle-aged daughter's system. She didn't always wash her hands after using the restroom. And, to feed her mother, she was breaking the food up into small pieces and placing them in the elderly woman's mouth. She had used the restroom just prior to serving the burger.
You have to ask yourself, how well do I know my housemates? How well do I know people who might visit and handle utensils -like my kids' friends, the sitter, my friends, service employees, repair people, etc. In the US, 50% of men, and 25% of women don't wash their hands after using the restroom. (also, one more reason to hate open concept kitchens, but, that's another rant)
