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I apologize if this is a really dumb question, but I genuinely don't know the answer. Am I washing my hands too frequently?
I just put some chicken on the grill. I had been thawing the chicken in a bag in the fridge.
1. Wash my hands.
2. Get bag of chicken out of fridge.
3. Get out spices and clean plate.
4. Open bag of chicken.
5. Remove raw chicken from bag and lay it on plate.
6. Wash my hands.
7. Season the chicken.
8. Wash my hands.
9. Turn chicken over.
10. Wash my hands.
11. Season the chicken.
12. Open grill.
13. Lay raw chicken on grill with one hand. Use the other hand to hold the plate, open the door, and turn on the faucet inside.
14. Wash my hands.
15. Wash the plate.
I will probably wash my hands at least twice more while making dinner and once again before I eat. It drives me nuts sometimes that I have to wash my hands so much ... especially now that it's getting cold out and the tap water is practically freezing. I turn off the water when I lather my hands, but we still go through soap and paper towels at a pretty good tick. Chefs on TV like Emeril wipe their hands with a dishcloth while they cook. Is that safe to do?
The nanosecond that you put down the raw chicken to pick up something else (like the jar of pepper) you should be washing your hands. The problem lies in the way that chicken is slaughtered. There is simply no way to prevent contamination of the chicken with organisms such as Salmonella and other enteric flora. When you put the RAW chicken down to pick up something else you SHOULD be washing your hands or you risk transferring the bacteria from the chicken to the pepper container, for example.
Of course, the bacteria can't live on a pepper jar forever, but if someone else picks it up to put it away for you while you're working on the chicken, it's going to be a successful transmission to that second person.
I apologize if this is a really dumb question, but I genuinely don't know the answer. Am I washing my hands too frequently?
I just put some chicken on the grill. I had been thawing the chicken in a bag in the fridge.
1. Wash my hands.
2. Get bag of chicken out of fridge.
3. Get out spices and clean plate.
4. Open bag of chicken.
5. Remove raw chicken from bag and lay it on plate.
6. Wash my hands.
7. Season the chicken.
8. Wash my hands.
9. Turn chicken over.
10. Wash my hands.
11. Season the chicken.
12. Open grill.
13. Lay raw chicken on grill with one hand. Use the other hand to hold the plate, open the door, and turn on the faucet inside.
14. Wash my hands.
15. Wash the plate.
I will probably wash my hands at least twice more while making dinner and once again before I eat. It drives me nuts sometimes that I have to wash my hands so much ... especially now that it's getting cold out and the tap water is practically freezing. I turn off the water when I lather my hands, but we still go through soap and paper towels at a pretty good tick. Chefs on TV like Emeril wipe their hands with a dishcloth while they cook. Is that safe to do?
Simple answer....YEP!
[Chefs...wipe their hands with a dishcloth while they cook. Is that safe to do?]
-Well there you go, you got it right there. One sees this ALL the time doesn't one? Gotta wonder about that don't you? and then ask yourself the question of why YOU feel the need to wash YOUR hands as often as you do ...Think about it for a while praps.
I believe chicken is the worst meat for bugs too but hey...I don't wash my hands every 10 seconds while preparing chicken, my immune system can't be THAT bad surely, if it were then I would, or should, have been dead years ago. A little of the old common sense and logic is all that's required don't you think?
Get down and dirty occasionally so your body has half a chance of maintaining a healthy immune system. If you can't do that then take a swig of colloidal silver every day.
If you wash your hans extremely frequently try to use a soap that has no anti bacterial in it. Normal soap will clean the hands and get rid of the bacteria. Too much washing with anti bacterials can stop the anti bacterials working on you as you can become resistant to them.
You CAN'T wash your hands too frequently while cooking.
Whenever you've handled raw chicken, beef, pork or any other raw meat, it's best to wash your hands before touching anything else (including pan handles, spatula's, spoons or whatever.) If you don't, you're transfering potential contaminents all over your kitchen.
If you're concerned enough to wash and prevent the spread of contaminents...good for you! You won't be found among the legion of morons who come down with E Coli illnesses because they don't do what you do.
By the way...speaking of just wiping your hands on a towel..
I sat at the counter at a little truck stop in northern Florida once and watched the cook prepare my hamburger. She was literally grinding meat to make burger patties and then, after she'd placed my burger on the grill, wiped her hands on a dry towel, removed my buns from a package and plopped them on the grill to toast.
She never once turned my buns over onto the grill, which meant she'd left un-cooked hamburger meat on the top of my bun, so I refused to accept it when it was delivered to my seat. Those buns still had un-cooked, raw hamburger on the top and I wouldn't eat it.
JustJulia, kudos to you for being so conscientious and food-safe! Always, always wash your hands frequently.
I'm a Life Skills instructor as well as a level 3 chef, I'm certified to cook in institutional settings like hospitals, schools, group homes, as well as restaurants and hotels. I can tell you that you are not washing your hands too often when you're using your bare hands to handle the food. If having to wash your hands so frequently is bothersome you can do what a lot of properly trained professional cooks do, which is to handle the meat less often with your hands and more often with clean utensils such as tongs, forks, turners, etc. If you're concerned about keeping the utensils clean in between uses while turning the meat you can stand the utensils, business end down, in a container with a solution of 1 part vinegar to 7 parts water. Don't worry, it won't transfer a vinegar taste to the food.
When TV cooks like Emeril wipe their hands on a dry towel after handling meats and then proceed to handle other things, they're violating Food Safety standards. I'm always surprised they get away with it on tv shows. They set a very poor example by doing that but one of the reasons they do it is because they're constrained by time limits. They have a show to produce and aren't very concerned about hygiene standards, it would slow them down too much and they don't get paid for wasting time. However, what some of them do is use a damp cloth that's been soaked in vinegar/water and wrung out.
One other thing I'll mention which I think is very important and this is based on my experience from also working in butcher and meat cutting departments. I know how fresh meats and fish get processed and packaged. When you remove raw chicken, turkey or fish from the package, you should wash it quickly under cold running water and then pat it dry with a clean paper towel before doing anything else with it. You'll be washing a lot of grunge and dirt off it that you can't see with the naked eye and I'm not just talking about bacteria. Other raw meats that can't be washed (i.e. beef, pork, lamb, etc.) should be patted on all sides with a paper towel to remove particles of bone dust and bone chips from the surface before preparing for cooking.
[Chefs...wipe their hands with a dishcloth while they cook. Is that safe to do?]
-Well there you go, you got it right there. One sees this ALL the time doesn't one? Gotta wonder about that don't you? and then ask yourself the question of why YOU feel the need to wash YOUR hands as often as you do ...Think about it for a while praps.
I believe chicken is the worst meat for bugs too but hey...I don't wash my hands every 10 seconds while preparing chicken, my immune system can't be THAT bad surely, if it were then I would, or should, have been dead years ago. A little of the old common sense and logic is all that's required don't you think?
Get down and dirty occasionally so your body has half a chance of maintaining a healthy immune system. If you can't do that then take a swig of colloidal silver every day.
This is not good advice. Do you know what can happen to people who take an indiscriminate swig of colloidal silver every day? Ever heard of the condition Argyria? It is a condition where your skin and the whites of the eyes turn blue from prolonged use of colloidal silver on a daily basis. You can google it for further information, "argyria" or "blue skin from colloidal silver", even google images of it. It's not pretty.
This is not good advice. Do you know what can happen to people who take an indiscriminate swig of colloidal silver every day? Ever heard of the condition Argyria? It is a condition where your skin and the whites of the eyes turn blue from prolonged use of colloidal silver on a daily basis. You can google it for further information, "argyria" or "blue skin from colloidal silver", even google images of it. It's not pretty.
Don't need to look at any of those sites as you obviously don't understand what constitutes EIS/CS.
I don't need to say anymore, other than to say whatever is there will be all rubbish, misinformation and propaganda to put the frighteners into people...guess it worked aye.
Thanks for everyone's replies. I did misspeak and put an extra handwashing at #8--I would only have washed my hands if I had touched the chicken. Sometimes I am able to use one hand to place and turn the meat and the other to touch spices and utensils, saving me the in-between washing, but still. It gets tiresome and I wasn't sure if it was overkill. Sounds like it's not.
Ino, I did say that I didn't know the answer. I see TV chefs wiping their hands on dishcloths, but that doesn't tell me anything. I don't know if they do that because it's safe or because they have a crew who cleans everything afterward. I don't know if raw meat is covered with poisonous bacteria or if that's just media overreaction. I have a pretty hardy immune system, am not often sick, and am not afraid to get dirty. Thank you for the suggestion, but I am not going to drink colloidal silver.
Zoisite, I like the idea of using tongs more. I do wash tongs, spatulas, plates, etc., every time they touch raw meat, but at least I won't subject my hands to so much soap and frigid water. I wondered if I should try gloves or something, but tongs and a cup of diluted vinegar sounds like a good option.
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...Think about it for a while praps. 
A little of the old common sense and logic is all that's required don't you think?
If you can't do that then take a swig of colloidal silver every day.
