Other people's cooking makes me feel sick

Washing meat is ridiculous.

YABVU in most of your examples. I feel sad for you because you don’t sound well and it must be very hard living such a restrictive life. You must struggle to function. As a PP said, we aren’t meant to be sterile.

Yes, and you also have to breathe through your nose ONLY in case you let any moisture out of your mouth that could fall on the food.

Kindly, this is excessive to the point of being pathological. Sweaty forehead? Washing dishes in (presumably) hot water with (presumably) washing up liquid both of which clean germs? Talking in the kitchen?

You really need to get some help for this as it is only going to get worse - after you've cut out all the current worries and won't eat at people's houses if they do this, what will be next?

Gads no one should be washing raw meat in their sink. Haven’t you seen the video where it shows all the bacteria from the chicken flying all over the kitchen from the water droplets hitting it? 😱

I don’t get it either?

You’re not supposed to wash in especially not in the sink! There had been loads of public info about this - it transfers the bacteria to the sink and it’s probably why meat washing friend got food poisoning - from the meaty sink!

I wouldn’t never want to eat at the house of someone who let a dog lick dishes that humans were going to use ever, no matter how they were washed. Dogs should have entirely separate dishes and shouldn’t be licking cooking items. Even if technically speaking all germs are being killed in the top layer of the dishwasher it’s just grim.

And I’m really not a clean freak at all!

A lot of it sounds genuinely disgusting so I understand why it makes you sick - licking fingers, washing up in dirty water, not washing hands before handling food etc

But things like talking whilst cooking is pretty normal and it’s unusual to feel disgusted by this. So I wonder if there is an element of a you issue here - not necessarily OCD but maybe a health anxiety because of the possible germs?

Unless the water is actually boiling (100 degrees) then it is the soap and the scrubbing movement that washes the germs off.

My dog licks the dishes in the dishwasher before it goes in and I wash on an Eco wash of 50 degrees. But I’d have no issue eating out of that casserole dish.

I think a lot of people here have similar issues to you OP, but that doesn’t mean they are healthy. It’s never even occurred to me to worry about people talking over food prep. I am notoriously lax about stuff like this. I wash hands before cooking, but otherwise i think the rest is bordering on, if not actually OCD.

I don't think there is anything neurotic about having concerns about the hygiene in the kitchens of others who are planning on serving you their food. Disgust is a primary human emotion for a reason. It's linked with our survival as a species.

And yet you survived… and presumably didn’t come down with food poisoning as you’d have said. Kind of proves the point that we can be too neurotic when it comes to these things.

I worked with someone who washed her meat religiously before cooking… she was then off for a week or more with really bad food poisoning! I can’t prove the cause obviously, but I don’t suppose all that unnecessary handling of raw chicken whilst washing it would have helped!

I remember staying at a relative’s house and having a casserole. After we’d finished, the dish was put on the floor for the dog to lick, then it was washed in lukewarm water. We had another casserole the next night…😬

Yes, I’ve never taken notice of this kind of thing at all really. It’s just not any kind of thought process or that occupies any space in my brain.

Once you accept there’s faecal matter on basically everything you touch then you just have to let it go or drive yourself mad. I’ve never had food poisoning and only started to get Norovirus occasionally when I had kids and they brought it home from nursery.

I don’t know what the solution is, OP, but I know you’re not alone. I’m the same, and remember being like this as a child and going round to other people’s houses. One parent joked with my mum that “I clearly thought they were trying to poison me” because I wouldn’t eat anything at their house. My mum was furious that I’d be so impolite - but I didn’t know how to explain it to her. I still don’t!

It’s particularly bad in houses with dogs. It makes me feel physically sick if I have to eat there. I had to go to a book club session recently in a house with two black labs who were constantly under the table and begging for food, and I’d see the host petting them and feeding them stuff and then using her hands to prep food for us 🤮🤮
Couldn't eat a thing. Even drinking from a glass felt like a huge effort.

I don’t actually think I’ve ever said any of this out loud (as it were) before! My mum had OCD, but nothing to do with food, so I wonder whether it’s an inherited or learned anxiety thing.

I tend to just excuse myself by saying, “Ooh, this looks lovely but I’m not hungry”.

If you find something that works to help, let me know! The irony is that I’m a total feeder for others - I love cooking for people and hosting etc and I’m far from obsessive about my own hygiene standards. I’m prob pretty ‘normal’ in my own house. So weird.

Who washes meat? Now that's odd.

I do not eat from people who do not wash their meat. I only eat with people that I have observed with my own eyes, that they are hygienic people.
and a dirty house is one I would never eat at.

@Emmaemma13 I’m the same as you in that I’d start gagging - I’ve even thrown up when food has been the wrong texture. It’s mortifying and it means when I go out I’m really limited to a certain amount of safe foods that I know I’ll be able to tolerate.

Sensory issues are a big part of my autism - I’m similarly fussy with clothes and room temperatures!

I can kind of see where you are coming from. But someone upthread suggested they would talk to a friend as a “teaching moment”. I suspect that may be the end of the friendship if you try to teach them about kitchen hygiene

I’m not sure if it’s that with me as well as a hygiene thing.

I know logically that I’m very unlikely to get unwell from someone’s food.

I like most foods, like the barbecue example. I love burgers/sausages. But if I bit into a brand I wasn’t familiar with or they were cooked differently to how I do it. I’d start gagging. That would be massively embarrassing so I just avoid.

Ot is shit and very restrictive but I’ve always been this way. I’m waiting for an autism assessment.

Agreed. I don't think I have ever even noticed any of these things. It suggests to me that people are on high alert when they eat at other people's homes, watching them closely to see if they do anything they deem unhygienic. I'm relaxing and enjoying the company.

I have massive issues with this kind of thing and I have since I was a child.

I wouldn’t eat anyone’s food only a very select few people. That’s basically my mum, dhs mum and my sister. Even with them I’d only eat certain things.

If I went to someone’s house for dinner I’d gag I just couldn’t eat food that someone had made.

I hardly eat out because if I go in a restaurant and something puts me off I can’t eat anything.

It’s quite restrictive I’m not sure what it is. Is it OCD?

I totally understand this but I do have a history of arfid and OCD.
I never eat at anyone else's home and hardly ever eat out and if I do I always check the Scores on the Doors website first.
I can think of only two people I know who's cooking I would be being happy to eat, the others (including my own parents) is a definite no.

It is a very restrictive way to live and I don't know anyone like this so I definitely agree that this thread is not representative of most people.

How do you go on holiday or visit friends and family if you can't eat food that you haven't prepared yourself? Everyone I know enjoys a communal bbq or shared lunch, food from market stalls, home made cakes.

I'll eat virtually anything and am never sick. I probably last threw up in about 2013 when my DD was bringing bugs home from nursery.

If you have children please be careful not to pass on your psychological issues to them.