Washing hands before eating

I understand different opinions but I really don't see how it can be massively disgusting.

I've just eaten dinner (we eat early with young DC) and my fingers didn't touch my food, my mouth, or the ends of the my cutlery that go in my mouth. I literally only touched the handle of my knife and fork, and the handle of the serving spoon. So I'm not sure why a meal (when eaten with cutlery) is a particularly essential part of the day to have clean hands for, over and above other times of the day. I don't put my fingers in/around my mouth, or in my food, or on the ends of my cutlery.
If I was eating something that I used my fingers for (or that required fingers to serve, eg slicing cake and transferring to a plate), I'd wash my hands, and I wash my hands before and after cooking/preparing food.

I always wash my hands before eating, cooking, handling food, emptying the dishwasher or setting the table. I would expect other people to do the same.

No. I wash them when needed - after touching raw meat etc, I usually do it when I get in from being out. I don't need to wash them before I eat, just because. Neither does my child.

I'm a bit lax with hand washing after the loo as well tbh. I don't touch anything except loo roll. I do after a no 2 but not a wee!

I honestly think a bit of dirt is good for us.

I wash my hands before eating if I'm eating out somewhere. Usually because I've been out and about and just like to freshen up.

At home, I wouldn't routinely wash my hands if I was about to eat something that someone else had prepared and I was going to use cutlery to eat. If I have cooked it, I will have already washed my hands before/after. If I need to use my hands to eat, burger etc, then I'll wash my hands.

Currently sat on the sofa waiting for DP to bring me spaghetti bolognese, haven't washed my hands but I don't shovel spaghetti in with my hands!

Yes, we are the same. I can count on one hand the number of sickness bugs my kids have had.
We wash hands when coming in from outside with the animals, when the kids have been outside playing, after going to the toilet but no, not specifically before eating.
Generally you eat with cutlery anyway

"Time to wash your hands before - lunch, supper etc." is the call to the table and generally means there are 5 to 10 minutes before food.
I don't do this before breakfast on the assumption that most will have got up and had a shower beforehand.

Ew, some of the responses on here are making my skin crawl. I admit I am a bit compulsive about handwashing, I always have been so I known I am the other extreme and wash my hands for all sorts of reasons that other people wouldn't. However, it's just sensible to give your hands a wash if you are preparing food or eating and your hands might touch the food. And you should definitely wash them after touching a toilet or the bin.

I don’t insist adult guests wash their hands but on play dates I tell the children to. Whether that’s a bag of crisps or a full meal.

I always wash my hands in restaurants, other peoples homes, out at the park at a picnic… always.

I use tissue or my sleeve to open door handles and the like due to the amount of filthy people out there who don’t want their hands.

I was in a public bathroom a couple of weeks ago and a lady pretended to run her fingertips under the water but no soap. Vile.

I was also in a supermarket once where a woman moved a pack of raw chicken breasts which had split open, wiped her hands on a tissue in her pocket and continued on her merry way, no doubt spreading salmonella around the shop.

people are disgusting therefore I am anal about my own cleanliness and that of my family’s.

You are being boastful for being very unhygienic 🤢🤢🤢🤢

Yep 👍

No wonder norovirus spreads so quickly with the hand washing resistant brigade.

Wash your bloody hands.

No and no. Between us me and DC have had about 3 instances of stomach upset in 15 years and once past babyhood I don't think any of us have ever been sick. (As in vomiting). Very occasional colds, COVID X1 each back in 2020.

That’s Mank.

And precisely one of the reasons why I don’t buy homemade cakes from the schools PTA cake sale.

I admire your honesty though.

I wish restaurants here were like Japan where they give you a hot wet cloth to clean your hands before serving the food.

I'm really curious about this thread. I don't wash my hands before eating and never have. I wash them when I've used the toilet, changed a nappy, when I first come in from work or from an activity where my hands probably got dirty, and before starting to cook. Never specifically before meals.

I'd love to know what the handwashing fans expect when hosting people for dinner. Do you all expect guests to take it in turns in the bathroom before the meal is served? Do you give a 10 minute warning for this purpose? What about if you have casual guests round for crisps? What about when you go to a restaurant to eat? Genuinely would love to know what you do.

I also have the suspicion that the existence of mobile phones and indeed of door handles and taps makes most handwashing pointless, eg you go to the toilet, turn the tap on with hands which have touched toilet paper, toilet flusher etc, clean hands, turn tap off so reconnect with germs you had on your hands before, open door with handle you touched when entering bathroom in the first place and which has probably been touched by lots of people who previously used the toilet without washing their hands... touch your own phone screen which you previously touched with your own unwashed hands... So unless there's a specific mess to clean off, it all seems like an empty superstitious ritual at this point.

Yes and all members of household wash their hands when they’ve been out on coming into the home ( especially after public transport).

Yes, because I'm not a fucking idiot with zero clue about food and hand hygiene

Depends what I'm doing. I wash them before preparing food and if handling raw meat again after I've done that so I wouldn't wash them again after serving food. If I went out to eat I wouldn't go to the bathroom to wash my hands unless I needed to use the toilet.

Yes. Am very aware that other people don't and we always wash hands when coming home after being out / after work / shopping. Bugs and germs lurk everywhere and anywhere, I would rather take a few minutes washing my hands than possibly being ill from something I picked up somewhere.

Also wash them before food handling at home as I have cats and have definitely stroked them.😂😂

• and always after preparing food and dealing with Dcat's litter box.

Absolutely. We wash hands when we get home and again before eating. Basic food hygiene surely?

Yes and yes. Always. It’s just basic hygiene.

I believe it’s the single most effective thing we can do to reduce spread of bugs.

Shocked to be honest by the amount of people saying no 🫠

Hear hear!

As a person yes and encouraged my dcs too all the time.
As a chef I wash them
When I've got changed
After touching raw meat or fish
After putting deliveries away
After to loo in the loo area then when I come back into the kitchen
When I've touched my phone.
When I get home off the bus before I get a drink.
So much food poisoning or illness is caused by poor hand hygiene.