Rules on serving food to guests

[goatley]

I'm seeing some family members this week. Hurrah. It's been a long time.

Garden meeting. Socially distanced. No one indoors.

Can I serve food and drink? How best to do so?

None of us are particularly. A couple over 65. Two kids in school.. Two adults back at work. But no one is in the shielding category.

Any tips welcomed. Tia.

Yes, the issue you have is if you intend to social distance meaningfully, you don't really want to pass glasses, bottles etc!

I can invisage you could set up a buffet, people get their own using their designated cutlery and plate, all dirties get put in one place when finished, you just wear rubber gloves to collect or wash all that anyway.

Or one person plates it up in gloves then someone collects.

Drinks are harder due to refilling.

I'm assuming you won't snot in the food .

I can see why many people won't bother, it is a faff

It all feels like overkill, but doing nothing also feels somehow wrong, to me.

Thanks

Yes I may put a few snacks out. Lots of napkins and plastic cutlery for picking up items.

It will only be for an hour or so anyway as I don't think the weather is going to be great..

There are no "rules" as such, just use your common sense.

Wash your hands before serving food and guests wash hands before and after eating.

I would probably do buffet style and each guest uses a separate spoon to serve themselves what they want.

We have had 4 socially distanced meet ups, this is what we did;
Seperate dishes for each household eg: bowls of crisps, dips etc.
As far as possible disposable everything (pizza boxes, paper napkins). Glasses straight out of the dishwasher handled with napkins, separate bottles of drink. No passing of food items between groups.
You get used to it and actually it worked fine.

We had a bbq for dh’s bday this past weekend. He had 5 friends over and they stayed in the garden. We, luckily, have a toilet in the garage and they used that as I didn’t want anyone in the house. I asked them to disinfect it each time they used it.

I put out disposable cutlery, cups and plates for them (eco friendly, £8.99 for a pack of 150 on amazon). All the drinks were individual cans/bottles and I asked them to put them straight in the bin when they were finished. I also put out individual packets of crisps, biscuits, nuts and chocolate for them to snack on. The salad and sides I made were kept covered in film. I put lots of spoons, tongs out and asked that they help themselves but use the tongs and not their fingers.

I know it sounds like overkill but, honestly, as long as your prepared, it’ll be fine. I also put a little ‘clean station’ in the corner with hand gel, antibacterial wipes, dettol spray and they just wiped up as they went along.

I would hope that people would follow the same basic hygiene rules that they were doing this time last year.

I was so my parents at the weekend, we didn't do anything different than usual.

Please don't use plastic cutlery/plates. A dishwasher will deal with the virus fine, assuming any of your guests have it, which is vanishingly unlikely. So will hot soapy water if you don't have a dishwasher.

Thanks for all the replies.

If I do put any foods out it will only be snacky items - I like the idea of a bowlful/plateful for each family group. Less chance of someone forgetting and diving in with their hands.

@TheGreatWave

I would hope that people would follow the same basic hygiene rules that they were doing this time last year.

I was so my parents at the weekend, we didn't do anything different than usual.

The biggest difference is just not touching things others have touched. I definitely would NOT have worried about that last year.

Nor toilets, would never have asked guests to clean!

Some snack foods are really tricky. Crisps, peanuts...because in normal circumstances people pick one up, put it in their mouths...then the hand goes back to the bowl again...I mean, it is perfect for spreading a virus. You could put a bowl of crisps/peanuts (whatever snack of that kind) per household for example.

But I think it is really difficult and annoying to make a covid-19 secure gathering at your house. I personally prefer to meet less people less often (only our household and another maximum at once) and be more relaxed.

When we’ve had people at home I cleaned the toilet downstairs for them to use and with the intention of not using the same toilet. But to be honest, we have ended up using the same one downstairs at the end of the day.

If everyone washes their hands before serving / accepting food then it isn't an issue. Other viruses can live on surfaces, so hand washing is always important around food.

It is about good hygiene practices, follow them and you protect yourself and others.

We had a buffet at work for the end of term and we just used the forks/spoons we had picked up rather than communal things.

Def use normal plates, glasses etc and then the dishwasher/hot water. No such thing as truly eco single use plates etc sadly.

Some snack foods are really tricky. Crisps, peanuts...because in normal circumstances people pick one up, put it in their mouths...then the hand goes back to the bowl again...I mean, it is perfect for spreading a virus.

That's the point I am trying to make, these things have always been poor hygiene wise, it shouldn't have to take covid for these things to stop.

@TheGreatWave

Some snack foods are really tricky. Crisps, peanuts...because in normal circumstances people pick one up, put it in their mouths...then the hand goes back to the bowl again...I mean, it is perfect for spreading a virus.

That's the point I am trying to make, these things have always been poor hygiene wise, it shouldn't have to take covid for these things to stop.

Exactly. I wonder about some people’s food hygiene practices if they’re all of a sudden only worried about Covid .

I would honestly apply a wee bit of common sense. Apparently in Scotland there are something like 1 in 13000 people with the virus. As long as I wasn’t hosting a mass gathering I’d change my arm that the likelihood of a couple of people I’ve invited round being them are beyond negligible.

@JaaniGoGo

We had a bbq for dh’s bday this past weekend. He had 5 friends over and they stayed in the garden. We, luckily, have a toilet in the garage and they used that as I didn’t want anyone in the house. I asked them to disinfect it each time they used it.

I put out disposable cutlery, cups and plates for them (eco friendly, £8.99 for a pack of 150 on amazon). All the drinks were individual cans/bottles and I asked them to put them straight in the bin when they were finished. I also put out individual packets of crisps, biscuits, nuts and chocolate for them to snack on. The salad and sides I made were kept covered in film. I put lots of spoons, tongs out and asked that they help themselves but use the tongs and not their fingers.

I know it sounds like overkill but, honestly, as long as your prepared, it’ll be fine. I also put a little ‘clean station’ in the corner with hand gel, antibacterial wipes, dettol spray and they just wiped up as they went along.

Yet more bloody waste to add to all the wipes, chemicals, disposable masks, single use plastic bags that are being thrown around all over the place since Covid came along.

Poor planet

common sense approach got us into the whole mess in the first place

Just wash your hands was, as we can all recall, all we needed to do to avoid the virus spreading.

Definition of madness is doing the same thing twice and expecting a different result.

We aren’t really in the same position as we were then with no social distancing, masks etc and the virus on the rise with people cramming into shops and the Cheltenham festival.

Why people are stressing about people touching plates and cutlery when they have been touching items and shelves in supermarkets when 1 in 40 people had the virus probably without thinking and now that 1 in 13000 people have it too can’t have someone over for a cup of tea and a cake without a military operation. As the point was made communal bowls of crisps and nuts are minging anyway, that it’s taken Covid for people to see this is surprising.

I’m quite comfortable that if I was to have my parents over for tea that them and us having been pretty much nowhere since March and following all recommended measures on the rare occasions we do go out that it’s safe and the likelihood of any of us having the virus is microscopic.

People are not 'stressing' over touching cutlery, they are following the guidance.

Your common sense is different to my common sense - because there is no such thing as common sense.

We've had friends around to the house for dinner. We just did everything as normal apart from not hugging each other and the fact that I wiped the door handles, downstairs loo taps, etc, with a bit of anti bac. I think I'd rather not visit someone who was going to be so stressed about the whole thing. Where's the fun in that?

I thought there weren't any known examples of transmission through food etc.

The danger is face 2 face indoors.

We arent worrying about touching food outside (and we were sheilding.) But instead wont go indoors currently.

I guess people obsess over the bits they feel they can control. I think outdoors the risk is so negligible that unless they're on your lap facing you, touching the same plate wont harm.

We would just have everyone serve themselves from buffet thing with spoons/tongs/whatever, wash or anti-bac hands, then eat.

@labyrinthloafer you said

“The biggest difference is just not touching things others have touched. I definitely would NOT have worried about that last year.“

Why are you worried? Why is touching the same plate as one person you know any more risk than touching items in a supermarket that any random could have touched/breathed/coughed over? The answer is it isn’t. Just wash your hands, don’t touch your face and wash the plates in hot water. Hardly “worrying”.