I was channel surfing and passed Ina Garten washing arugula in her
"kitchen" sink and have seen other food show hosts doing the same.

Is there anyone in RFC who is sure that their kitchen sink is clean
enough to wash greens in it?

Even if I soaked the sink in a Chlorox solution for a couple of hours,
I'm not sure I would feel brave enough to use it for that purpose.

Jed said...

> I was channel surfing and passed Ina Garten washing arugula in her
> "kitchen" sink and have seen other food show hosts doing the same.
>
> Is there anyone in RFC who is sure that their kitchen sink is clean
> enough to wash greens in it?
>
> Even if I soaked the sink in a Chlorox solution for a couple of hours,
> I'm not sure I would feel brave enough to use it for that purpose.


I'll chop or pull greens and sit them in the salad spinner and fill it with
water and spin a couple times.

Next, I pull the strainer of veggies out, pour the water out, rinse the
outer bowl and separately rinse the strainer of greens. Reassemble the
strainer of greens back into the bowl, and spin dry.

Wash the salad spinner normally afterwards.

Andy

"Jed" > wrote:
>I was channel surfing and passed Ina Garten washing arugula in her
> "kitchen" sink and have seen other food show hosts doing the same.
>
> Is there anyone in RFC who is sure that their kitchen sink is clean
> enough to wash greens in it?
>
> Even if I soaked the sink in a Chlorox solution for a couple of hours,
> I'm not sure I would feel brave enough to use it for that purpose.

I do it all the time. I make sure it's clean, but don't obsess about it. If
you're willing to wash a dish (that had raw meat on it) by hand and then eat
off it later, it's about the same thing. Most things having to do with
sanitation involve flushing the bad stuff away rather than killing it. Most
things are never really sterile, what you are doing is reducing the bacteria
count down so low that it can't reproduce to a harmful level in a short
time.

Remember that the dish towel that you dried your wine glass with may have
been washed in the same laundry load as the bath towel that you dried your
tush with. Does that make it unsanitary? For that matter, the same hand that
wiped your behind with was washed (I hope) and then used to put a french fry
in your mouth. You didn't cut your hand off and get a new one! ;-)

--
wff_ng_7 (at) verizon (dot) net

wff_ng_7 said...

> If
> you're willing to wash a dish (that had raw meat on it) by hand and then
> eat off it later, it's about the same thing. Most things having to do
> with sanitation involve flushing the bad stuff away rather than killing
> it. Most things are never really sterile


One thing that you hear the food TV cooks say, after they've saturated
themselves in chicken parts, etc., is to wash your hands with soap and hot
water.

Now I've seen those same cooks turn on the hot water faucet, dispense soap,
wash their hands and then turn off the water.

It seems (in order) they've contaminated the water faucet, contaminated the
soap dispenser, washed their hands and then recontaminated their hand again
turning off the water.

That is unless there's some brilliant sleight of hand they don't show.

I've seen them work with possibly bacteria laden food with both hands so
I'm keen about that not being the magic.

Andy

"Jed" > wrote in message

> I was channel surfing and passed Ina Garten washing arugula in her
> "kitchen" sink and have seen other food show hosts doing the same.
>
> Is there anyone in RFC who is sure that their kitchen sink is clean
> enough to wash greens in it?
>
> Even if I soaked the sink in a Chlorox solution for a couple of hours,
> I'm not sure I would feel brave enough to use it for that purpose.

Do you eat off of dishes that were washed in that same sink?

BOB

"Jed" > wrote

>I was channel surfing and passed Ina Garten washing arugula in her
> "kitchen" sink and have seen other food show hosts doing the same.
>
> Is there anyone in RFC who is sure that their kitchen sink is clean
> enough to wash greens in it?

> Even if I soaked the sink in a Chlorox solution for a couple of hours,
> I'm not sure I would feel brave enough to use it for that purpose.

Heh. I was taken to task on this subject. Some show advised
you not wash poultry. Why? Because you might then wash
salad greens in the same sink, thus contaminating it with chicken
germs. Uh, that won't be a concern for me.

Personally, I don't touch my food to my sink. I have dishes
and pots and cutting boards, etc., to hold my food. Salad
greens? Are they so heavy you can't hold them while washing
them? Then get a bowl or a colander or something.

nancy

Andy wrote:

> wff_ng_7 said...
>
>
>>If
>>you're willing to wash a dish (that had raw meat on it) by hand and then
>>eat off it later, it's about the same thing. Most things having to do
>>with sanitation involve flushing the bad stuff away rather than killing
>>it. Most things are never really sterile
>
>
>
> One thing that you hear the food TV cooks say, after they've saturated
> themselves in chicken parts, etc., is to wash your hands with soap and hot
> water.
>
> Now I've seen those same cooks turn on the hot water faucet, dispense soap,
> wash their hands and then turn off the water.
>
> It seems (in order) they've contaminated the water faucet, contaminated the
> soap dispenser, washed their hands and then recontaminated their hand again
> turning off the water.
>
> That is unless there's some brilliant sleight of hand they don't show.
>
> I've seen them work with possibly bacteria laden food with both hands so
> I'm keen about that not being the magic.
>
> Andy

If you have ever handled a whole chicken, and indulged your hands into
the fat, parts, et cetera. You should realize that a quick lather and
rinse is not going to take off the fat and possible bacteria from your
hands. Matter of fact, probably the drying with the towel is taking off
more fat/bacteria from your hands than the water.

You need a good sponge and a lot of elbow grease to really do a good job.

To really sterilize a food you really need to give it fire, gamma rays
(which I assume most here don't have access to.) And for spores, you
need pressure and fire. For prions (infectious proteins (mad cow, et
cetera,) it's not even known if autoclave denatures the proteins
completely.

Latex free gloves are a very good alternative.

HTH,

R

On Wed, 11 Apr 2007 21:27:56 -0400, " BOB" > wrote:

>"Jed" > wrote in message

>> I was channel surfing and passed Ina Garten washing arugula in her
>> "kitchen" sink and have seen other food show hosts doing the same.
>>
>> Is there anyone in RFC who is sure that their kitchen sink is clean
>> enough to wash greens in it?
>>
>> Even if I soaked the sink in a Chlorox solution for a couple of hours,
>> I'm not sure I would feel brave enough to use it for that purpose.
>
>Do you eat off of dishes that were washed in that same sink?

Yes, but I usually (wastefully) wash my dishes under running water.

I'm not a rabid bacteriaphobe, but it seems to me that a sink that can
harbor bits of raw meat in the drain seams as well as soap and
chemical residue just isn't the ideal place for soaking produce and
the like. It triggers the "ick factor" for me.

I'd prefer to fill a cleaned, seamless pot for soaking things like
that, when necessary, or washing the produce under running water by
hand or in a collander.

Nancy Young wrote:

> "Jed" > wrote
>
>
>>I was channel surfing and passed Ina Garten washing arugula in her
>>"kitchen" sink and have seen other food show hosts doing the same.
>>
>>Is there anyone in RFC who is sure that their kitchen sink is clean
>>enough to wash greens in it?
>
>
>>Even if I soaked the sink in a Chlorox solution for a couple of hours,
>>I'm not sure I would feel brave enough to use it for that purpose.
>
>
> Heh. I was taken to task on this subject. Some show advised
> you not wash poultry. Why? Because you might then wash
> salad greens in the same sink, thus contaminating it with chicken
> germs. Uh, that won't be a concern for me.
>
> Personally, I don't touch my food to my sink. I have dishes
> and pots and cutting boards, etc., to hold my food. Salad
> greens? Are they so heavy you can't hold them while washing
> them? Then get a bowl or a colander or something.
>
> nancy
>
>
> Xactly; I don't let the greens touch anything but the water.

R

In article >,
Jed > wrote:

> I was channel surfing and passed Ina Garten washing arugula in her
> "kitchen" sink and have seen other food show hosts doing the same.
>
> Is there anyone in RFC who is sure that their kitchen sink is clean
> enough to wash greens in it?
>
> Even if I soaked the sink in a Chlorox solution for a couple of hours,
> I'm not sure I would feel brave enough to use it for that purpose.

Oh please!!!

:-P
--
Peace, Om

Remove _ to validate e-mails.

"My mother never saw the irony in calling me a Son of a bitch" -- Jack Nicholson

In article >,
"Nancy Young" > wrote:

> "Jed" > wrote
>
> >I was channel surfing and passed Ina Garten washing arugula in her
> > "kitchen" sink and have seen other food show hosts doing the same.
> >
> > Is there anyone in RFC who is sure that their kitchen sink is clean
> > enough to wash greens in it?
>
> > Even if I soaked the sink in a Chlorox solution for a couple of hours,
> > I'm not sure I would feel brave enough to use it for that purpose.
>
> Heh. I was taken to task on this subject. Some show advised
> you not wash poultry. Why? Because you might then wash
> salad greens in the same sink, thus contaminating it with chicken
> germs. Uh, that won't be a concern for me.
>
> Personally, I don't touch my food to my sink. I have dishes
> and pots and cutting boards, etc., to hold my food. Salad
> greens? Are they so heavy you can't hold them while washing
> them? Then get a bowl or a colander or something.
>
> nancy

I wash mine in a screen strainer, but that's for convenience, not
because I'm afraid of germs in a sink I keep clean and scrubbed!
--
Peace, Om

Remove _ to validate e-mails.

"My mother never saw the irony in calling me a Son of a bitch" -- Jack Nicholson

"Omelet" > wrote

> "Nancy Young" > wrote:

>> Personally, I don't touch my food to my sink. I have dishes
>> and pots and cutting boards, etc., to hold my food. Salad
>> greens? Are they so heavy you can't hold them while washing
>> them? Then get a bowl or a colander or something.

> I wash mine in a screen strainer, but that's for convenience, not
> because I'm afraid of germs in a sink I keep clean and scrubbed!

What are the logistics of that. You wash the chicken and scrub
down the sink with some impeccably clean sponge or something.
Then you make the rest of the meal, putting dirty dishes or cooking
apparatus in there, then scrub again when it's time to make the
salad. If nothing else, I'm far too lazy to keep scrubbing the sink all
the time. Just me, I don't use my sink as a food surface.

nancy

Jed > wrote in
:

> I was channel surfing and passed Ina Garten washing arugula in
> her "kitchen" sink and have seen other food show hosts doing
> the same.
>
> Is there anyone in RFC who is sure that their kitchen sink is
> clean enough to wash greens in it?

I do all the time. Have done it for years this way and so does my
mom and family. I have stainless steel sinks that I scour (with
cleanser) to keep clean.


> Even if I soaked the sink in a Chlorox solution for a couple
> of hours, I'm not sure I would feel brave enough to use it for
> that purpose.

Use a big new bowl or tub if that would make you feel better.

"Andy" <q> wrote:
> One thing that you hear the food TV cooks say, after they've saturated
> themselves in chicken parts, etc., is to wash your hands with soap and hot
> water.
>
> Now I've seen those same cooks turn on the hot water faucet, dispense
> soap,
> wash their hands and then turn off the water.
>
> It seems (in order) they've contaminated the water faucet, contaminated
> the
> soap dispenser, washed their hands and then recontaminated their hand
> again
> turning off the water.
>
> That is unless there's some brilliant sleight of hand they don't show.
>
> I've seen them work with possibly bacteria laden food with both hands so
> I'm keen about that not being the magic.

As you point out there is often a chain of events along which there is a
inevitable mistake. The touching of the faucet handle is one of those
events. That's why in hospital operating room situations they would have
faucets with the long handles that could be turned on and off with the
elbows or faucets with a foot pedal. That's also partly behind the sensors
installed on sinks, toilets, paper towel dispensers and hand dryers in
restrooms so that nothing has to be touched. The other reason of course is
to save water and make sure the toilet actually gets flushed.

A lot of the phobias people have are encouraged by manufacturers to sell
more, like all these fancy sanitizer products for the home. Unfortunately
fear sells. Some other products sold on fear a

- four wheel drive vehicles
- GM's OnStar service
- home security systems
- pesticides and pest control services
- gated communities

To me one of the greatest examples of playing with people's fears to sell
something was justifying the Iraq war based on terrorism, followed by the
selling (re-electing) of Dubya based on his superior capacity to protect us.
I think a majority of the American public feels they were snookered on that
one by now.

"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself" - FDR

--
wff_ng_7 (at) verizon (dot) net

On Apr 12, 10:25 am, Jed > wrote:
> I was channel surfing and passed Ina Garten washing arugula in her
> "kitchen" sink and have seen other food show hosts doing the same.
>
> Is there anyone in RFC who is sure that their kitchen sink is clean
> enough to wash greens in it?

Yes

>
> Even if I soaked the sink in a Chlorox solution for a couple of hours,
> I'm not sure I would feel brave enough to use it for that purpose.

And I don't attempt to sterilize it with chlorine either. I do wash
it carefully however.

Are your dishes or utensils washed in the same sink? How come they
are clean enough to eat off?

Is the water in your plumbing sterile? If it was would washing your
salad with it remove all microbes? Will rinsing your dishes with
water straight out of the tap achieve 100% cleanliness?

What about the air in your kitchen including above your sink, is it
free of microbes?

How about your hands or gloves?

We live in a microbiological soup. Our houses, posessions, food, air,
water and our bodies inside and out are infested with billions of
bugs.

You should take steps to make your food and things in contact with
your food _sufficiently_ clean to be harmless. They will never be
sterile.

This means you *will* ingest some microbes every day. You have been
living with this situation all your life, there is no reason to lose
sleep over it now or to waste time and effort over pointless rituals
that achieve nothing much.

David

"Jed" > wrote:
> Is there anyone in RFC who is sure that their kitchen sink is clean
> enough to wash greens in it?

I was thinking about this some more after looking at what some others have
posted. Basically if you can wash a container clean, you should be able to
use it to wash greens. But some things you just can't get completely clean
due to their design... so I guess that rules out the toilet bowl. Too bad,
because it would be great for washing greens with all that water going
around in a circle... kind of like a salad spinner! ;-)


--
wff_ng_7 (at) verizon (dot) net

Jed wrote:
> I was channel surfing and passed Ina Garten washing arugula in her
> "kitchen" sink and have seen other food show hosts doing the same.
>
> Is there anyone in RFC who is sure that their kitchen sink is clean
> enough to wash greens in it?
>
> Even if I soaked the sink in a Chlorox solution for a couple of hours,
> I'm not sure I would feel brave enough to use it for that purpose.
>
Didn't we just do this fear.. I mean, topic recently?
Yes. My sink obviously is cleaner than yours. I have few qualms about
letting food touch it. I wash it out as necessary and don't have dirty
dishes and food in there.

Andy wrote:

> One thing that you hear the food TV cooks say, after they've saturated
> themselves in chicken parts, etc., is to wash your hands with soap and hot
> water.
> Now I've seen those same cooks turn on the hot water faucet, dispense soap,
> wash their hands and then turn off the water.
> It seems (in order) they've contaminated the water faucet, contaminated the
> soap dispenser, washed their hands and then recontaminated their hand again
> turning off the water.
> That is unless there's some brilliant sleight of hand they don't show.
> I've seen them work with possibly bacteria laden food with both hands so
> I'm keen about that not being the magic.

I think that problem is that many of those demo kitchens don't have
water, or at least hot water many times. They're faking it. WE at home
can do better.

Richard Periut wrote:

> To really sterilize a food you really need to give it fire, gamma rays
> (which I assume most here don't have access to.) And for spores, you
> need pressure and fire. For prions (infectious proteins (mad cow, et
> cetera,) it's not even known if autoclave denatures the proteins
> completely.
>
> Latex free gloves are a very good alternative.

Odd.. I think using them for the home kitchen is a bit neurotic. LOL
Why would you imagine food is supposed to be "sterile" during normal
meal prep? It isn't going to be.

Nancy Young wrote:

> What are the logistics of that. You wash the chicken and scrub
> down the sink with some impeccably clean sponge or something.
> Then you make the rest of the meal, putting dirty dishes or cooking
> apparatus in there, then scrub again when it's time to make the
> salad. If nothing else, I'm far too lazy to keep scrubbing the sink all
> the time. Just me, I don't use my sink as a food surface.
>
When I am going to prepare raw poultry, the first thing I do is fill up
a small plastic bowl with a dilute bleach solution. Then after I do
whatever I need to do, I wash the sink and counters down (not forgetting
the faucet handles) and then wipe with the diluted bleach solution.

No one in my family has ever had food poisoning nor do we ever get
mystery gastric upsets, runny tummy or anything often blamed on "stomach
flu".

wff_ng_7 wrote:

> A lot of the phobias people have are encouraged by manufacturers to sell
> more, like all these fancy sanitizer products for the home.
> Unfortunately fear sells. Some other products sold on fear a
>
> - four wheel drive vehicles
> - GM's OnStar service
> - home security systems
> - pesticides and pest control services
> - gated communities

Baby monitors and Feminine hygiene deoderants. Talk about introducing a
fear... geeesh.

I feel the same way about most of those new commercial vegetable washes too.

Richard Periut wrote:
>
> For prions (infectious proteins (mad cow, et
> cetera,) it's not even known if autoclave denatures
> the proteins completely.

It is known. It doesn't.

Quoting from _Scientific_American_ (August 1990)
describing a major outbreak of CJD in the former
Czechoslovakia associated with sheep:

"The nature of the causal agent is bitterly controversial.
The agent certainly has extraordinary properties: it elicits
no immune response and is resistant to treatments that kill
most other infectious agents. Brown has four times repeated
an experiment apparently showing that scrapie survives --
just barely -- a temperature of 360 degrees Celsius [680 F],
hot enough to break down amino acids and the base pairs that
make up RNA and DNA. 'That's rather distressing,' he says."

"Goomba38" > wrote

> Nancy Young wrote:
>
>> What are the logistics of that. You wash the chicken and scrub
>> down the sink with some impeccably clean sponge or something.
>> Then you make the rest of the meal, putting dirty dishes or cooking
>> apparatus in there, then scrub again when it's time to make the
>> salad. If nothing else, I'm far too lazy to keep scrubbing the sink all
>> the time. Just me, I don't use my sink as a food surface.
>>
> When I am going to prepare raw poultry, the first thing I do is fill up a
> small plastic bowl with a dilute bleach solution. Then after I do whatever
> I need to do, I wash the sink and counters down (not forgetting the faucet
> handles) and then wipe with the diluted bleach solution.

Thanks. I should do that. Still won't use my sink as a food prep
surface. For one thing, I have a wire rack on the bottom. I'm
not taking that out. And I sure wouldn't be dumb enough to put
greens into a sink where I'd been washing raw poultry/whatever
without cleaning it first.

nancy

In article >,
Richard Periut > wrote:

> Latex free gloves are a very good alternative.

I buy mine by the case.

In article >,
Goomba38 > wrote:

> > Latex free gloves are a very good alternative.
>
> Odd.. I think using them for the home kitchen is a bit neurotic. LOL
> Why would you imagine food is supposed to be "sterile" during normal
> meal prep? It isn't going to be.

The number of people with latex allergy or allergic dermatitis is
growing significantly. That's why I use mine. And they certainly keep
my hands clean.

In article >,
Jed > wrote:

> Is there anyone in RFC who is sure that their kitchen sink is clean
> enough to wash greens in it?
>
> Even if I soaked the sink in a Chlorox solution for a couple of hours,
> I'm not sure I would feel brave enough to use it for that purpose.


I have a high quality stainless sink, one of those double ones where one
side is small and the other is large. The small sink is used to wash all
my produce and the sink gets washed out first in the same way I'd wash a
stainless pan. I just don't see the difference. I don't put dirty
dishes on that side of the sink because it's too small. I always always
immerse the produce, especially greens & asparagus.

Emma Thackery wrote:
> In article >,
> Goomba38 > wrote:
>
>>> Latex free gloves are a very good alternative.
>> Odd.. I think using them for the home kitchen is a bit neurotic. LOL
>> Why would you imagine food is supposed to be "sterile" during normal
>> meal prep? It isn't going to be.
>
> The number of people with latex allergy or allergic dermatitis is
> growing significantly. That's why I use mine. And they certainly keep
> my hands clean.

I wasn't talking about a latex free glove being neurotic... I meant the
use of ANY glove seems bizarre to me. It strikes me as very unnatural
for a cook to be afraid to touch the food.
And I have soap and water at my house. Why would I need gloves to keep
my hands clean?

Nancy Young wrote:


> "Omelet" > wrote
>
> > "Nancy Young" > wrote:
> >> Personally, I don't touch my food to my sink. I have dishes
> >> and pots and cutting boards, etc., to hold my food. Salad
> >> greens? Are they so heavy you can't hold them while washing
> >> them? Then get a bowl or a colander or something.
> > I wash mine in a screen strainer, but that's for convenience, not
> > because I'm afraid of germs in a sink I keep clean and scrubbed!
>
> What are the logistics of that. You wash the chicken and scrub
> down the sink with some impeccably clean sponge or something.
> Then you make the rest of the meal, putting dirty dishes or cooking
> apparatus in there, then scrub again when it's time to make the
> salad. If nothing else, I'm far too lazy to keep scrubbing the sink all
> the time. Just me, I don't use my sink as a food surface.
>


When I'm cooking, I like to wash my dishes/utensils as I go along. So
I keep a sink of hot soapy water with a bit of bleach added in which
to wash things as I go along. I also have a spray bottle of hydrogen
peroxide that I use to clean surfaces, cutting boards, handles, etc.,
especially if I am dealing with meat. Additionally I'll microwave
sponges and towels for a minute as I go along in the cooking
process...and I'll pour bleach or H2O2 down the drain too, especially
if their is creature flesh involved...

I'm not especially germa - a - phobic (lol), but I think that pretty
much "covers the waterfront"...

In any case washing produce, my sink is always clean so I've no
compunction about washing produce in it...if especially paranoid you
can always add a bit of bleach or H202 I guess to the soaking water...

--
Best
Greg

I've been reading this thread and agree with the multitudes of people
who say that cleaning with soap, water, and maybe a cleanser designed
for the purpose is good enough, but I thought I'd point out an
exception: people who are immune compromised or sick. If someone is
getting chemo for cancer, their bodies might not be in a position to
fight off the small amount of bacteria that might land in the salad
greens from the sink. Someone who is elderly and has suffered from an
intestinal virus or bacteria might want to be extra cautious. Normally
a kitchen needs to be sanitary while a hospital operating room needs to
be sterile, but someone's home might need to be raised to hospital
levels of cleanliness under certain circumstances.


Me, I'm not sick. I rinse the salad greens in a collander under running
water because that's the most convenient way to do it. I wash my hands
frequently with soap and water, not the antibacterial stuff, and I wash
the faucet knobs with the same cleanser I use on the sink. The kitchen
is clean, not sparkling.


--Lia

Goomba38 wrote:


> When I am going to prepare raw poultry, the first thing I do is fill up
> a small plastic bowl with a dilute bleach solution. Then after I do
> whatever I need to do, I wash the sink and counters down (not forgetting
> the faucet handles) and then wipe with the diluted bleach solution.
>


I do the same thing...working with poultry really oogies me out.


> No one in my family has ever had food poisoning nor do we ever get
> mystery gastric upsets, runny tummy or anything often blamed on "stomach
> flu".


Exactly...

--
Best
Greg

Goomba38 wrote:


> wff_ng_7 wrote:
> > A lot of the phobias people have are encouraged by manufacturers to sell
> > more, like all these fancy sanitizer products for the home.
> > Unfortunately fear sells. Some other products sold on fear a
>
> > - four wheel drive vehicles
> > - GM's OnStar service
> > - home security systems
> > - pesticides and pest control services
> > - gated communities
>
> Baby monitors and Feminine hygiene deoderants. Talk about introducing a
> fear... geeesh.
>
> I feel the same way about most of those new commercial vegetable washes too.


At the Housewares Show here in Chicawgo recently one of the "big
deals" reported on the nooze was a hands - off paper towel dispenser
that worked via a sensor, similar to sanitary devices found in airport
restrooms, etc. It was touted as being "handy" e.g. for when your
hands are wet/dirty, and it was stressed that this item was
"especially hygienic"...

Guess it was a slooooow nooze day...

--
best
Greg

Julia wrote on Thu, 12 Apr 2007 09:38:41 -0400:

JA> Me, I'm not sick. I rinse the salad greens in a collander
JA> under running water because that's the most convenient way
JA> to do it. I wash my hands frequently with soap and water,
JA> not the antibacterial stuff, and I wash the faucet knobs
JA> with the same cleanser I use on the sink. The kitchen is
JA> clean, not sparkling.

A study some years ago found that ordinary hand soap was as good
a bacteriocide as many expensive antiseptics. A minor cut is
best just washed with soap and water before using a band aid. I
use ordinary Ivory soap because of its lack of strong scent.

James Silverton
Potomac, Maryland

E-mail, with obvious alterations:
not.jim.silverton.at.comcast.not

On 12 Apr 2007 06:43:17 -0700, "Gregory Morrow"
> wrote:


>At the Housewares Show here in Chicawgo recently one of the "big
>deals" reported on the nooze was a hands - off paper towel dispenser
>that worked via a sensor, similar to sanitary devices found in airport
>restrooms, etc. It was touted as being "handy" e.g. for when your
>hands are wet/dirty, and it was stressed that this item was
>"especially hygienic"...

Some of the units I work in, have these gizmos. I always groan when I
see them. Yes, they may be more sanitary, but I think they are a
PITA.
Especially after doing a 3 minute scrub before working, and having my
arms up to my elbows, dripping. It takes several "tries" on the
gizmo, to get enough paper towels to dry off. And if you try at the
wrong moment to trip the sensor, it won't do anything, and yo have to
keep on trying. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr....

Christine

"James Silverton" <not.jim.silverton.at.comcast.not> wrote
> A study some years ago found that ordinary hand soap was as good a
> bacteriocide as many expensive antiseptics. A minor cut is best just
> washed with soap and water before using a band aid. I use ordinary Ivory
> soap because of its lack of strong scent.

Especially since it appears that the use of antibacterial soap causes
new strains of resistant bacteria to develop.

"Julia Altshuler" > wrote:
> I've been reading this thread and agree with the multitudes of people who
> say that cleaning with soap, water, and maybe a cleanser designed for the
> purpose is good enough, but I thought I'd point out an exception: people
> who are immune compromised or sick. If someone is getting chemo for
> cancer, their bodies might not be in a position to fight off the small
> amount of bacteria that might land in the salad greens from the sink.
> Someone who is elderly and has suffered from an intestinal virus or
> bacteria might want to be extra cautious. Normally a kitchen needs to be
> sanitary while a hospital operating room needs to be sterile, but
> someone's home might need to be raised to hospital levels of cleanliness
> under certain circumstances.

My sister when through chemo last summer and had those kind of issues. To be
completely safe, ALL fresh salads, vegetables and fruits were removed from
her diet. She was so glad when it was over.

--
wff_ng_7 (at) verizon (dot) net

"Gregory Morrow" > wrote:
> I do the same thing...working with poultry really oogies me out.

I don't have any problems working with any kind of meat or poultry. Or even
gutting fish and taking their guts out. But what grosses me out is people
that have a sink full of dirty dishes sitting in dirty water overnight or
all day. I do wonder if they change the water before doing the actual
washing of the dishes, but it's a question I am afraid to ask. I might never
eat at that house again if I got the wrong answer.

--
wff_ng_7 (at) verizon (dot) net

"Richard Periut" > wrote:
> Latex free gloves are a very good alternative.

The funny thing about the use of gloves in the food service industry is
often the workers make the same kinds of mistakes as they do with bare
hands. A common one is handling money with the gloves on, and then working
with food again without changing the gloves. Some people go through the
motions because they are told to, but they have no understanding of what the
purpose is. That leads to these kinds of mistakes.

--
wff_ng_7 (at) verizon (dot) net

Jed wrote:
> I was channel surfing and passed Ina Garten washing arugula in her
> "kitchen" sink and have seen other food show hosts doing the same.
>
> Is there anyone in RFC who is sure that their kitchen sink is clean
> enough to wash greens in it?
>
> Even if I soaked the sink in a Chlorox solution for a couple of hours,
> I'm not sure I would feel brave enough to use it for that purpose.
>


What else have you been doing in the sink to make it so
unsanitary? Don't you ever scrub it?

I wash most greens in the salad spinner, but am not averse to using the
sink when necessary.

gloria p

Jed wrote:

>
> Yes, but I usually (wastefully) wash my dishes under running water.

I do too...
>
> I'm not a rabid bacteriaphobe, but it seems to me that a sink that can
> harbor bits of raw meat in the drain seams as well as soap and
> chemical residue just isn't the ideal place for soaking produce and
> the like. It triggers the "ick factor" for me.
>
> I'd prefer to fill a cleaned, seamless pot for soaking things like
> that, when necessary, or washing the produce under running water by
> hand or in a collander.
>

I wash greens in a colander too. And we keep separate cutting boards for
meat and vegetables, which are washed immediately after use.
--
Cheers
Chatty Cathy

In article >,
"Nancy Young" > wrote:

> "Omelet" > wrote
>
> > "Nancy Young" > wrote:
>
> >> Personally, I don't touch my food to my sink. I have dishes
> >> and pots and cutting boards, etc., to hold my food. Salad
> >> greens? Are they so heavy you can't hold them while washing
> >> them? Then get a bowl or a colander or something.
>
> > I wash mine in a screen strainer, but that's for convenience, not
> > because I'm afraid of germs in a sink I keep clean and scrubbed!
>
> What are the logistics of that. You wash the chicken and scrub
> down the sink with some impeccably clean sponge or something.
> Then you make the rest of the meal, putting dirty dishes or cooking
> apparatus in there, then scrub again when it's time to make the
> salad. If nothing else, I'm far too lazy to keep scrubbing the sink all
> the time. Just me, I don't use my sink as a food surface.
>
> nancy

Any time I rinse off meat and poultry in the sink, it gets a bleach
treatment. ;-) I've had Salmonella. Once was enough.

I'm just not phobic about my sink is all!
--
Peace, Om

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