...to not wash this knife?

[ScarletCrimpernel]

Was chopping veg, used the knife I was using to stab the pack of chicken drumsticks so I could peel the film back more easily, then resumed chopping veg. DH thinks this is an unconscionable approach to food hygiene (and he said those exact words because he's weird), I think it's fine.

AIBU or is he?

If for a stew or slow cooker I chop the veg and meat together - it's going to be mixed together and then cooked anyway.

If it was salad veg YABVU!

Perfectly fine then! Raw meat and veg are mixed in a casserole pot or pan so they can be chopped on the same chopping board with the same knife.

Seriously, I didn't realise people treated chicken like toxic waste.
Mind you, I don't wash bagged salads either. We must all have strong constitutions in our house

As long as the veg is being cooked, its fine.

If it makes anyone feel any better about barmy food rules;

Lidl has had to issue a recall on packets of peanuts, because.....

The packets do not say they contain nuts!

We've officially gone barmy

Sorry, YABU.

I use a separate knife to open the chicken container and put it straight in the dishwasher, regardless of if it came into contact with the chicken or not. It may have fit some chicken juices on it. Would never use this knife subsequently on my veg, no.

Personally I would chop veg, stab chicken package and then wash knife. However, if DH dared complain he would find himself cooking.

We must all have strong constitutions in our house Not sure a strong constitution protects against E. coli and salmonella.

It probabky doesn't but I've been cooking chicken for over 30 years and nobody has been struck down with either of those, so must be doing something right.

I do similar all the time. We've all survived so far. The knife rarely even touches the meat, just the plastic so I can peel it back.

But we're of the "peck of dirt before you die" brigade and are very laid back about stuff. Except manners. And personal hygiene.

I would have washed the knife. Actually, I would have used a different knife for the chicken package and then put it in the dishwasher, or used it to cut up the chicken, depending what I was making.

I'm not generally very risk averse, but I had food poisoning once (not from my own cooking!) and I really really don't want to take any avoidable risk of ever having it again.

On the other hand, I regularly cook dishes that involve placing raw meat on top of vegetables and putting it all in the oven for an hour or two, so maybe I'm being unreasonably precious about opening meat packaging.

I wouldn't. But I very struck about that, chicken has a special chopping board, knives go straight in the dishwasher and (this is really taking it too far) I swap stirring spoons halfway through cooking!

I would have done what you did, it's not like you even chopped the chicken with the knife.

I use the same board and knife at all times for all meats and veg unless doing salad, in which case I wouldn't have raw meat anyway!

I am a teacher, I am far more likely to pick up something nasty from just being in my classroom near children than worrying about changing knifes to open a pack of meat.

I'm sorry but I find that disgusting (I am very squeamish and hyper vigilant when it comes to raw chicken though - and when shopping it has to be in a separate bag away from other raw meat and then the shopping bag thrown away or chucked in wash if a cloth bag). Even if the veg is cooked I wouldn't be able to eat it knowing a knife that had come in contact with raw chicken had been used to cut it without said knife being washed.

RAW CHICKEN. AAAARGH.

RUNS SCREAMING FROM THREAD.

Seperate bag and then bag thrown away? It's not radioactive waste, it's a bit of meat! I'm surprised you actually eat the stuff.

FSG, I assume that no one in the OP's house has any serious medical condition.
It was fine. Yes you can take a risk of spreading E. coli and whatnot but the risk is VERY small.
Besides, the OP cooked all the veg anyway...

I agree. There is been careful and being careful. There is being careful when you cook for members of the public (whose health migt not be great, contamination can affects lots of people etc...) and there is cooking for yourself at home. There is being careful when yoou cook for someone with a deficient immune systems and cooking for peole in good health. These aren't the same thing and our bodies are designed to cope with all that.

My issue with it is
where do you draw the line?
There was on the news a report of a few family members taken ill because they drunk a drink straight from the can. A can that a rat has urinated on. As it happens so often (think warehouses etc).
Does it means that we should either all stop using cans at all for a drink or have all cans lid washed first before drinking?
Etc etc.

And before anyone screams at me. We are all in regular contact with salmonella and E. coli. They are not strange bacteria that we never see, quite the opposite. But we resist to them in probably 99.99% of the cases. As we should.
The fact we aren't getting regularly I'll has more to do with our immune system than how clean our knife is.

I'm wondering how much the food tech in secondary school has to do with the obsession with hygiene in the UK.

Coming from a country where food tech just iisn't taught, I've never heard anyone being worried about anything like this, from knifes to towels an different chopping board.

And people aren't more ill than over here. (I'm sure they would know of this was the case).
So why so much worry and angst? apart from the fact people are taught it is disgusting etc

But the veg was subsequently cooked people!!! I cook roasties next to a chicken - why would I not cut them with the same knife?

Separate knife always here, or prep veg and move it to a plate before doing chicken on the board. Even if I'm cooking the veg as I, and other family members, sometimes nibble on prepared vegetables and off cuts prior to cooking (carrots, broccoli stalks, peppers, etc.). I'd hate to be otherwise distracted when someone nabs something from the board that was possibly contaminated with raw chicken.

If the chicken and veg are both getting cooked, particularly if they are all going in together in a roast or casserole, then washing the knife would be completely pointless.

Mammouth I don't think it has anything to do with Food Tech lessons, on the back of every pack of raw meat I've bought it has a note about washing knives, hands and surfaces immediately after touching.

There's also the constant news about the majority of supermarket chickens being contaminated with campylobacter.