To ask what you do when preparing raw meat

[Rosesandthistles]

I have OCD with a contamination/germ obsession as part of my condition and have lots of excessive/irrational fears around germs and illness. One of the (many) ways that this affects me is that I cannot bare to prepare or even have other people prepare raw meat in the kitchen.

I am working through therapy on facing this fear and wondered how cautious everyone else is when preparing raw meat- do you:

• Wipe the sides down after for example sticking chicken fillets in the oven or do you just bung them in and ignore any spills?
• Avoid touching the oven/other ingredients with raw meat still on your hands or would you just go around touching the other ingredients and the oven without thinking about it?
• Put any chopping boards/knives that you've used on raw meat straight into the dishwasher or do you leave them lying around or wash them up by hand?
• Wash your hands for 20 seconds after handling meat? or just a quick rinse? And would you wipe the taps afterwards or try to avoid touching the tap with stuff on your fingers or just not think about it?

Also, have you ever had food poisoning after eating food that you've prepared?

I do everything you’ve said and I don’t have ocd

Except I didn’t understand the first one?

I wash hands with soap straight after touching anything raw and immediately washed its hot water
And soap chopping board and knife.

Is that not just the hygienic thing to do??

The best tip I have is to fill the washing up bowl with hot soapy water so you can wash your hands and wash up as you go along

I always wash my hands straight after touching raw meat. I don't think that's OCD.

Today I made meatloaf. I mixed it with my hands then washed them in a sink full of hot soapy water. Washed everything by hand. Then anti bac on the surface.
I always have a tea towel to hand for spills on the go - it goes immediately into the washing machine when I'm done.
I've never had food poisoning.

Wipe the sides down after for example sticking chicken fillets in the oven or do you just bung them in and ignore any spills?

I don't understand what would spill?

I wash my hands with hot water and soap before and after handling raw meat and also wash chopping board and knife immediately afterwards too. I don't have OCD, this just seems like basic hygiene.

I think the points you make just sound like common sense. Yes I wipe down, put the (meat) chopping board straight in the dishwasher, wash hands thoroughly. I wouldn’t touch anything with meat on my hands.

I am only really careful with raw chicken.

I’d wash my hands briefly before touching anything else and leave stuff on the side to then go in the dishwasher.

I’d use a chopping board so the worktop wouldn’t need wiping.

If I was then cooking the other ingredients I am not careful. Eg I’d chop veg on the chicken-y board for a stir fry. This isn’t good practice for a commercial kitchen, but it’s fine at home.

I am very much not an exemplary housekeeper, nor excessively worried about germs. But I am pretty careful with raw meat. I do everything you've suggested apart from knives being washed by hand in hot soapy water as I don't put our good knives in the dishwasher.

I don’t have OCD but my daughter is a vegetarian and it worried about meat contamination so I use Milton spray on all chopping boards and knives I have used for raw meat and I wash my hands in anti bac soap immediately after touching it before touching anything else

When I prepare raw chicken I basically treat it like radionactive waste. I put washing-up liquid onto a scourer and leave it by the sink, then turn on the hot tap and leave it running while I quickly chop the chicken on a board. Then the board and knife go straight into the hot water, and I wash both my hands and the board/knife thoroughly, along with the container the chicken was in. Then I wipe down the side and anything else that may have been touched with an anti-bac wipe, bin it, and wash my hands again.

This is for two reasons: 1) I have had campylobacter and it was the worst fucking week of my life, and 2) I have scavenger cats who will be all over anything even tangentially connected with raw chicken, including licking a bloody sharp knife blade.

I do everything you said

Sorry in answer to your question, I haven’t had food poisoning from anything that I’ve cooked, but I’ve had it twice in my life from a prawn sandwich on a ferry and prawn curry at a restaurant. I was fine after 24 hours though

We don't have a dishwasher so everything is washed by hand, but otherwise I do everything on your list.

I don't have any qualms around food preparation, but do pretty much what you've listed, to make it clearer:

• Wipe the sides down after for example sticking chicken fillets in the oven or do you just bung them in and ignore any spills? regardless of spill or not I wipe down
• Avoid touching the oven/other ingredients with raw meat still on your hands or would you just go around touching the other ingredients and the oven without thinking about it? don't touch anything until I've washed my hands
• Put any chopping boards/knives that you've used on raw meat straight into the dishwasher or do you leave them lying around or wash them up by hand? I'm a put it in a sink of hot bubbles before loading the dishwasher type
• Wash your hands for 20 seconds after handling meat? or just a quick rinse? And would you wipe the taps afterwards or try to avoid touching the tap with stuff on your fingers or just not think about it? always wash my hands with soap, I'm not sure if it's as thoroughly as 20 seconds each time, and yes I do wipe the taps

No, I've never had food poisoning from food I've prepared and I've been cooking (daily) for almost 10 years but as a teenager I helped my mum cook too.

i dont have OCD but when i do cooking with raw meat as an ingredient i prepare all the other ingredients first then do the raw meat on a chopping board last, food in the oven then i spray the worktop where i was working with antibac spray and use a paper towel to dry the worktop that goes in the bin hands washed after handling the raw meat before putting the chopping board and knife in hot soapy water to soak as i dont have a dishwasher spray the tap and then wash up the board and knife, just basic hygiene

I have OCD but not with germs.

Basic hygiene we learned at school is:

Clean chopping board only for meat, wash after - no other food to go on the board

Wipe surface around the chopping board before and after

Place meat into which ever cooking item - be it a pan, oven etc

All utensils involved in the preparation in dishwasher / wash up

I assume by "spills" the OP means the odd drips of chickeny fluid (sorry, that sounds grim) that can get on the surface as you take the chicken from the packaging to the board, or remove the packaging to bin? Anyhow, I do wipe down as well as sling the board in the dishwasher, for this reason.

I try not to let raw meat directly touch the worktop and if it does or anything spills I will spray it and wipe before washing hands. I use a food probe to temp things like chicken and joints of meat just because it gives me more confidence that its cooked, although I've never not cooked anything properly using my own judgement.

I do everything you said, that’s just standard food hygiene isn’t it?

I think most people would do the same, are you concerned that they wouldn’t?

I wash my hands after touching raw/ready to cook meat. I don’t necessarily if I am handling raw meat to eat eg Parma ham, tartare, if I’m curing fish, eg, but I’m about to eat it.

I wipe the chopping board afterward and the knives/scissors go in the sink to wait dishwasher stacking or in the dishwasher. I don’t let raw meat splash around the room and if it did I would clean it. I clean the worktop after anything really - tenderising steaks or schnitzels or breading, battering raw chicken, I’ll clean it down. Rolling pastry or scones or kneading dough, I’ll clean it down. Chopping vegetables and salad, I’ll clean it down.

I have never given myself or anyone else food poisoning.

Wipe the sides down after for example sticking chicken fillets in the oven or do you just bung them in and ignore any spills?

I always wipe down surfaces which the raw meat has been in contact with, using hot water and some cleaning spray.

Avoid touching the oven/other ingredients with raw meat still on your hands or would you just go around touching the other ingredients and the oven without thinking about it?

I avoid touching anything until I’ve washed my hands in hot soapy water.

Put any chopping boards/knives that you've used on raw meat straight into the dishwasher or do you leave them lying around or wash them up by hand?

I wash them up by hand very soon after using them.

Wash your hands for 20 seconds after handling meat? or just a quick rinse? And would you wipe the taps afterwards or try to avoid touching the tap with stuff on your fingers or just not think about it?

I wash them with hot soapy water for probably about 10 seconds. I would wipe the taps if I had touched them.

I don’t have OCD and am relatively lax about hygiene generally, ie my house is not super-clean, just clean enough, and I don’t really worry about germs.

However, I am a bit anxious when preparing raw chicken. I worry a lot less about beef and lamb, but raw chicken juices make me feel jittery and I have to rush to wash my hands after preparing the meat because I sometimes get intrusive thoughts about it.

Have never had food poisoning.

I was taught in domestic science many many years ago about storing fresh meat below and away from cooked meat in the fridge. Properly cooling and storing food is also important but I’ve never had food poisoning

I wash my hands before and after touching the meat.
I immediately put chopping board/utensils aside to be washed up after adding meat to the pan.
I wash my hands straight away with soap but probably not for 20s..
I wipe down the counter if I think any juice may have gone onto it.

I do not wash the tap.
I don't do anything 'special' to wash up utensils/chopping board, just wash them by hand as usual.

I have never given myself nor my family food poisoning.