David Hare-Scott wrote:

> Unless you are conducting surgery or are dealing with a person in poor
> health whose imune system is compromised all this fuss over super
> cleanliness is doing nothing but causing you worry and enriching vendors who
> know how to play on your fear and your desire to conform and 'do the right
> thing'. Use common sense cleanliness routines - wash your hands, wash your
> cooking equipment and so forth. Do these measures make you and your stuff
> really clean? No. Neither do all the bunkum products.


I certainly hope this rant isn't saying that keeping hands and cooking
equipment clean is useless and on par with bunkum products. It sounds
like it there for a moment.


I wonder if part of the reason for overboard in sanitizing everything in
the kitchen comes from the way so many of us learn about cooking from
first jobs in fast food or other restaurants instead of at home. In
restaurants, it does make sense to keep everything cleaner because the
restaurant never knows if it is serving one of those people in poor
health or with a compromised immune system, someone very young or very
elderly.


In general, I agree with the rant, but it doesn't distinguish between
those cleanliness routines that do make sense (frequent hand washing
especially after using the bathroom, hot foods hot and cold foods cold
especially as regards stocks and raw seafood and raw poultry, wash
dishtowels and sponges frequently) and those that don't make much
difference (disinfecting floors, using anti-bacterial soap, special
products for washing fruits and vegetables).


--Lia