How much do you worry about germs and cleanliness?

Elsewhere in the cooking forums world, threads pop up fairly regularly with "is it still safe to eat?" or "unsafe cooking conditions" or the dreaded "buffets are dangerous" themes.

These always degenerate into the inevitable "even if you cook it, it can still be dangerous because the bacteria release TOXINS that are not 'killed' by heat......"

And "if it reached 40 degrees, it ain't safe better toss it".

And "buffets are hotbeds of uncleanliness and contamination danger"

So.... how much do you worry about all this?
How strict are your contamination/cleanliness/sanitation procedures at home?
Do you worry about buffets and pot lucks?

And... do you double dip or eat after one who does?

Having had rather severe food poisoning several times in my life, including a week-long stay in the infirmary when in college, I'm quite cautious about bad food.

This site is helpful: http://stilltasty.com/

At home Im pretty lenient but when i go out to buffets, salad bars things like that, i get a little grossed out. After seeing so many specials on 20/20 and shows like that, ive almost developed a phobia about eating out. I dont go out regularly. But when I do, in the back of my mind Im always thinking the worst. But, to date, ive never had anything noticeably happen to me.

ok there are MANY things people should be worried about (salmonella and ecoli examples) BUT we as a whole are WAY to scared of germs. people are killing ALL germs good and bad to the point that our bodies are losing the ability to fight the germs. we santize and use antibiotics to the point that one day we will die from the common cold.

I'd say DH and I have become borderline germophobe........ kids will do that to you. :

The ironic thing with me is, i get grossed out with the double dipping and wondering what they do in he kitchen at restaurants, yet i spend 30 hours a week with my hands in peoples mouths.

larry_stewart said:

...yet i spend 30 hours a week with my hands in peoples mouths.

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Please tell me you're a dentist or a dental hygienist!

Actually, its just a fetish of mine

Obviously, just kidding. Im a dentist. Ive been around so many germs in my life, u could probably make an antiserum from my blood.

I'm pretty careful at home. I go through the fridge regularly and throw out a lot of stuff, and I'm careful with cutting boards and counter tops. As far as restaurants and buffets, I decide whether or not I'm eating there based on how clean the restaurant looks/feels. I also check out the Health Dept's restaurant ratings in the newspaper regularly.

I don't mind double dipping if it's just me and hubby. I figure WTH. I've got his germs anyway .

I wouldn't say that I am worried about germs - until the H1n1 virus came into play. Outside the supermarket were handi wipes to wipe down one's hands and cart handle. I have never seen that before. I was not vaccinated for the virus, as I am not in that age catagory. However, it did make me stop & think.

I use two cutting boards at home, wash them down, rinse my produce & wash my hands.

My biggest concerns are the recent News stories alerting folks about bagged salad. There seems to be an ongoing problem with spinach & lettuce.

As far as buffets, the only time I have had an upset stomach, was when I used the salad dressing from the salad bar at my local market - & take-out from Home Town Buffet. Re Buffets in restaurants, California has a rating system displayed in the window of every restaurant. If it is below an A, I won't eat there.

I'm pretty careful at home and avoid buffet type serving like the plague when out. For the most part I avoid eating out more than a couple times a year and never by choice. Only had food poisoning once in my life and that was enough. I got it in a restaurant too but never with home cooked foods.

Like CC said about bag salads. I haven't bought one in a very long time and choose to buy fresh uncut vegetables. I also wash well and use a salad spinner to dry with. I use one main wood cutting board for vegetables and a sani tuff board for protein. I also pay close attention to meats in that I don't buy pre-ground at all. I have a meat grinder and grind as needed. I also won't buy many brands of processed meats preferring kosher for all beef sausage such as hot dogs, etc. For pork sausage I make my own most of the time with a few exceptions.

we have had hand and cart sani wipes at the front door and by the carts and also in the meat and dairy cases for about 10 years in my area. albeit if you didn't look for them you would miss them.

This isn't something I worry much about at all.
At home, I have a nifty cutting board with 7, count them SEVEN cutting mats, each for a different type product. I use two.. one for meats, one for other stuff.
I do make sure my fridge is cold and things are refrigerated, but I don't worry too much if my meat gets above 40 when thawing.
I DO NOT use antibacterial cleaners... that 1% left is gonna be the death of us when the other 99% of germs are gone!
I do wash in hot water, but my concern is a good scrubbing with a good rinse. Soap's optional.

As for restaurants, I've worked as a server and food prep in a variety, so I know the horror stories.... and I drive a car too. Do I not drive because I might get hit, or have a blow-out and crash? No, I keep on driving...
So yeah, I enjoy buffets but don't eat anything questionable. I don't worry about double dippers, unless they look sick or unhealthy.

ALL of my food poisoning have been from bread type products.. bad taco shells in school once, bad nachos at Taco Bell once (Well everyone BUT me, I got to clean up), and moldy bread on hamburgers from Hardee's once. I haven't met ANYONE, or met anyone who knows anyone, who has gotten food poisoning from home-cooked foods.

Although I do wash the bagged salads I get.. because I only get them when they are marked down for close expiration dates, and they've had lots of germination time, LOL

A watchful eye, normal cleanliness and I think we are just fine. But for those who feel otherwise, I certainly support your decision.. because safer is always a good choice!

I've never had food poisoning (knock wood) and I don't ever want to. I have separate cutting boards for meat and everything else, I pay attention to getting leftovers into the fridge quickly, and I clean counters and sinks regularly. That said, I don't use antibacterial cleaners, either. Like Kimchee, I am concerned about breeding "super bugs" in my kitchen. I use hot water, soap and friction to clean the surfaces in my kitchen.

I am leery of buffets, but I have eaten at them before, knowing there is risk involved. I look for restaurants and buffets in particular that look clean and well tended to and where the food is rotated often and looks fresh.

Oh am I with that FM, the antibacterial soaps and such probably cause more illness than they prevent. I grew up in a world without stuff like that and have been told my immune system is great by doctors in the past.

joec said:

I grew up in a world without stuff like that and have been told my immune system is great by doctors in the past.

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Me, too, Joe. And my kids are incredibly healthy, too. They rarely catch anything and when they do, it's always mild and short-lived.

I know that hospitals (and consequently patients) have a terrible time with resistant bacteria - gram negative - and it's because of all the antibacterial cleaners they have to use.

I am way less concerned about germs in my house than I am about germs at grocery stores and in doctor's offices and hospitals. I am a stickler about people washing their hands when they come home from anywhere.

Kimchee said:

Elsewhere in the cooking forums world, threads pop up fairly regularly with "is it still safe to eat?" or "unsafe cooking conditions" or the dreaded "buffets are dangerous" themes.
These always degenerate into the inevitable "even if you cook it, it can still be dangerous because the bacteria release TOXINS that are not 'killed' by heat......"
And "if it reached 40 degrees, it ain't safe better toss it".
And "buffets are hotbeds of uncleanliness and contamination danger"
So.... how much do you worry about all this?
How strict are your contamination/cleanliness/sanitation procedures at home?
Do you worry about buffets and pot lucks?
And... do you double dip or eat after one who does?

Click to expand...

I don't worry much, I worry excessively. Depends.

Qualifier: I'm ServSafe Certified.

We have 4 cats, how clean can our kitchen be?

But really, I've incorporated much of my training into the home.

I'll do things for the home when it's only Wife and I that I would never do if there is a chance of anything I'm preparing being consumed by the general public.

IE(s): For home I generally wash the cutting board(s) and counter tops/ food prep areas with soap and water, for the GP I wash the same with Clorox.

I made a broth from beef and pork bones, simmered overnight. Darn right I had a thermometer in the pot. Coldest spots were 185+. Thats good for home and away.

We didn't finish the 'broth' in 6 days so I froze it. It will be eaten at home, it Will Not leave the house. I would not feed it to company no matter their age or health.

Pre cooked food storage is IAW FDA (sic) guidelines because I don't know where it's going to end up.

>>>

Bagged salads? uke: I want to Clorox everything from the store as it is.

Put it this way, through the training I was made re-aware of cross contamination. I go anywhere I want to wash my hands. Think of it, someone does #2 at home and without washing goes to the store while picking their nose then touches that printer cartridge ... or the bulk mushrooms.

Eeewwwwwww!

We get bags of frozen mixed vegetables, darned right their well steamed before we eat them.

Before this thread I thought I was over my germophobia. LOL

I wanna eat at your house, Wart!

I'm pretty careful. I wash my hands before and after each time I touch raw meat. I won't touch anything in between. I keep raw meat and veg separate, and I have the thin poly mats that are easy to toss around and slip into the dishwasher. I also keep utensils that touch raw meat separate from everything else.

I grew up putting my mouth over the outdoor faucet to get a drink of water. We made mud pies (and tasted them). My brothers dared each other to eat worms. We didn't wear bicycle helmets. We played tackle football and ice hockey.

As children, we were forced to take a bath on the weekends (yes, it was a different generation before the American culture decided that daily bathing was necessary.) We were taught to brush your teeth once a day (before dentists taught us to brush after every meal). There were no such things as "antibacterial cleaners" for household chores - there was the sponge in the kitchen. The only cutting boards we had were wood (or the kitchen counter), which we wiped down with the same sponge we used for everything else.

We drank out of the milk bottle. Mom tasted the soup right off of the stirring spoon. We stuck our (not so clean) finger in the bowl to taste something. We all double dipped. We took bites off each other's plates, and passed our forks full of something to each other to taste. The potato salad sat on the picnic table all afternoon. Etc., ad nauseam.

In my entire life, I have never known anyone to die from these things. Most of us die from heart attacks, strokes, cancer, obesity, alzheimer's, etc.

Most of my friends and neighbors think I'm obsessively clean (compared to them), but I think most of this current obsession with germs is beyond ridiculous. And I also think much of it is fake.

I think that if I go into most of our homes, I'd find that the puffery and bravado about 'cross contamination' and 'food safety' is a lot of posturing on the boards to make ourselves look good. Most of us (myself included) try hard to be much more conscious of this stuff than we were in the 40's and the 50's and the 60's. But most of us still stick our fingers in the bowl, take a taste off the spoon, and use the sponge to wipe down the counter.

However, to make ourselves feel better, we have deprived our children of the pleasure of tasting a mud pie, of the cool refreshing hose on a hot summer's day, and of letting their hair blow in the wind on a bicycle. But we dutifully buy 7 different colored plastic sheets to cover our wooden cutting boards because the manufacturer tell us it's "safer".

In a restaurant kitchen I expect ALL of the food safety rules to be followed. But in my home, let's get real - I spread more germs from a nice sloppy kiss (or use your imagination here) than from a taste off the end of a spoon or a knife used on two different foods.

I'm with you, SS.

If Im the one eating something I might take a chance on something. Generally Im not nearly as cautious as the govt would want me to be. But when it comes to serving others I take much more care in what I do.

SilverSage said:

I grew up putting my mouth over the outdoor faucet to get a drink of water. We made mud pies (and tasted them). My brothers dared each other to eat worms. We didn't wear bicycle helmets. We played tackle football and ice hockey.

As children, we were forced to take a bath on the weekends (yes, it was a different generation before the American culture decided that daily bathing was necessary.) We were taught to brush your teeth once a day (before dentists taught us to brush after every meal). There were no such things as "antibacterial cleaners" for household chores - there was the sponge in the kitchen. The only cutting boards we had were wood (or the kitchen counter), which we wiped down with the same sponge we used for everything else.

We drank out of the milk bottle. Mom tasted the soup right off of the stirring spoon. We stuck our (not so clean) finger in the bowl to taste something. We all double dipped. We took bites off each other's plates, and passed our forks full of something to each other to taste. The potato salad sat on the picnic table all afternoon. Etc., ad nauseam.

In my entire life, I have never known anyone to die from these things. Most of us die from heart attacks, strokes, cancer, obesity, alzheimer's, etc.

Most of my friends and neighbors think I'm obsessively clean (compared to them), but I think most of this current obsession with germs is beyond ridiculous. And I also think much of it is fake.

I think that if I go into most of our homes, I'd find that the puffery and bravado about 'cross contamination' and 'food safety' is a lot of posturing on the boards to make ourselves look good. Most of us (myself included) try hard to be much more conscious of this stuff than we were in the 40's and the 50's and the 60's. But most of us still stick our fingers in the bowl, take a taste off the spoon, and use the sponge to wipe down the counter.

However, to make ourselves feel better, we have deprived our children of the pleasure of tasting a mud pie, of the cool refreshing hose on a hot summer's day, and of letting their hair blow in the wind on a bicycle. But we dutifully buy 7 different colored plastic sheets to cover our wooden cutting boards because the manufacturer tell us it's "safer".

In a restaurant kitchen I expect ALL of the food safety rules to be followed. But in my home, let's get real - I spread more germs from a nice sloppy kiss (or use your imagination here) than from a taste off the end of a spoon or a knife used on two different foods.

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You summed up an entire generation!! well put. i love you SS!!

I’m with Blue Eyes, and I do it my way.

I thaw on the counter or in the sink full of water.

If it doesn’t smell bad or look funky, I cook and eat it.

Most of the germ scare we live with today is produced by lawyers looking for a way to either protect their clients or sue someone for money.

All germs outside of weird protein foldings like Mad Cow dies at 160 or above.

Boiling liquids like water, stew, soup, gumbo, etc, are all at 212. Germs dead.

You can boil a cat turd at 212 and kill the germs, eat it, and no harm. Won’t taste good, but killing temp is killing temp.

It’s not rocket science. Wash your hands and utensils regularly. Don’t pee in your cooking pots and put them away. Don’t scratch open sores or your butt and touch plated food.

It’s. Not. That. Hard.

We cook things for a reason. We say things like “up to temp” when we cook. What is that temp? It’s the temp when the food is done and germs are dead.

A little common sense like don’t pick things up out of the yard and eat them, don’t eat things that have sat out for 2 days, if it is brown and should be white, don’t eat it….simple stuff. I get so tired of the food police…….

Wow, compared to you folks I must be living on the edge. If you have a weak immune system, you're gonna get sick. Otherwise, you'll do fine. I do wash my hands every time I enter the kitchen (even if I left only briefly) or if I touch the dogs. I'm pretty anal about raw chicken for which I do usually use a plastic board, frequently wash my hands when handling, and spray everything down with super hot water. Otherwise, I guess I'm pretty lax. For salads I'll soak the greens in some water with vinegar and then use a salad spinner. All other veggies generally get cooked and I don't worry about them much. I will let red meats sit out at room temperature, especially if I'm seasoning them or trying to bring up the temperature such as a rib roast. I'm fairly careful with fish and seafood...

To the best of my knowledge, no one has ever gotten sick as a result of my kitchen and I've fed a lot of people. I don't do stupid stuff, but I'm not obsessive either.

I wanted to mention that I have learned quite a few things about food safety here that I never knew before and I have adjusted accordingly. For example - I never knew that rice was a number one culprit in restaurant food poisonings. (Thank you Vera and Fryboy.) I am careful about getting my leftover rice into the fridge promptly as a result.

Also - I'm reading all this about bag salad and silly me - I thought it meant it was already clean if it came in a bag! I will wash (or avoid) bag salad from now on.

Keltin said:

I’m with Blue Eyes, and I do it my way.

I thaw on the counter or in the sink full of water.

If it doesn’t smell bad or look funky, I cook and eat it.

Most of the germ scare we live with today is produced by lawyers looking for a way to either protect their clients or sue someone for money.

All germs outside of weird protein foldings like Mad Cow dies at 160 or above.

Boiling liquids like water, stew, soup, gumbo, etc, are all at 212. Germs dead.

You can boil a cat turd at 212 and kill the germs, eat it, and no harm. Won’t taste good, but killing temp is killing temp.

It’s not rocket science. Wash your hands and utensils regularly. Don’t pee in your cooking pots and put them away. Don’t scratch open sores or your butt and touch plated food.

It’s. Not. That. Hard.

We cook things for a reason. We say things like “up to temp” when we cook. What is that temp? It’s the temp when the food is done and germs are dead.

A little common sense like don’t pick things up out of the yard and eat them, don’t eat things that have sat out for 2 days, if it is brown and should be white, don’t eat it….simple stuff. I get so tired of the food police…….

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Killing germs isn't the only concern, unfortunately. Botulism poisoning, for example, is caused by the highly toxic waste left behind by the very common botulism germ when it's allowed to flourish in certain foods, such as improperly canned food (usually home canned) with low acid content, such as asparagus, green beans, beets and corn, but also chopped garlic in oil, chile peppers, tomatoes, carrot juice, improperly handled baked potatoes wrapped in aluminum foil, and home-canned or fermented fish. Heating kills the germs but doesn't remove the toxins left behind, and that can be deadly. Fortunately, it's quite rare.

i'm in the "healthy dirt" camp. that is, if i'm cooking for just myself, i'll eat anything so long as it doesn't smell bad after being washed.

i'm a little more careful when i cook for my family, and because of all the things i've learned online and have read stories about people getting sick easily, i'm extremely anal about cleanliness and food temps when i cook for others.

i was raised eating raw eggs and meat fairly often, so i seem to have developed a resistance to food borne bad guys. one of my mom's specialties on a cold winter morning was a norwegian egg nog. that was a raw egg blended into chocolate milk until it was frothy. they were delicious.
also, my mom let me drink the blood (ok, intracellular fluids) from a package of fresh meat. blut ist gut!

FryBoy said:

Killing germs isn't the only concern, unfortunately. Botulism poisoning, for example, is caused by the highly toxic waste left behind by the very common botulism germ when it's allowed to flourish in certain foods, such as improperly canned food (usually home canned) with low acid content, such as asparagus, green beans, beets and corn, but also chopped garlic in oil, chile peppers, tomatoes, carrot juice, improperly handled baked potatoes wrapped in aluminum foil, and home-canned or fermented fish. Heating kills the germs but doesn't remove the toxins left behind, and that can be deadly. Fortunately, it's quite rare.

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True. And botulism looks cloudy and it stinks. I accidentally made a batch once. I know what it looks like and how it smells. So, as I said, if it looks or smells funky, you shouldn't eat it.

I eat my hamburger rare but have stopped eating raw eggs but still eat soft boiled eggs. I do grind my own ground beef though so I know the meat source and quality. It is like eating pork roasts, as most will leave cook till it is 160° temp before taking it out of the oven. I don't I take it out at about 145° and let it rest so the internal temp gets to about 158° to 160° which is safe to eat by my standard. It also doesn't taste dry either.