Potentially stupid question but hey go

[Fern123]

When doing your washing up, if you are washing knives/chopping boards that have been used for raw meat or poultry, do you wash them first in the hot soapy water or after you've done all the other dishes?
Is it gross to wash things that have been in contact with raw meat first and then wash plates/cutlery in the same water?
I usually wash the raw meat stuff first, throw that water out and then start with fresh for the rest...is it possible I'm over thinking the washing up!?

I don't worry about changing the water, but washing up should always go like this:

Glasses
Crockery
Metalware
Pots and pans and chopping boards

I.e., least greasy to most greasy, because if you wash glasses in water that's got meat grease in it, they'll go smeary and yuk.

I always spray the board and utensils with anti bac spray, leave for a few mins, rinse, then wash them all in hot soapy water on their own. Then I'd wash everything else. I have to bleach stuff that has come into contact with raw meat first.

I wash dishes in running water because I think a basin of water used for everything is unhygienic and disgusting. I use a ton of fairy because I have to put a new squirt on the sponge for each item. And it means i can wash the sponge out after each item. It's so much more hygienic.

I generally wash them first while the water is really hot because it makes me feel more certain that any bugs will have been killed, but this is just to cater to my paranoid side - I don't think it's really necessary, I think just the detergent would be sufficient. My paranoid side is then sufficiently happy that any bugs will now be dead, and is content to wash everything else in the same water. Usually not much fat comes away from uncooked meat so they don't put that much grease into the water. Other than that I do what tortoise does.

Note, though: the consensus amongst pathologists really is apparently that if you overdo it and rigorously sanitise everything, you really do increase the risk of children developing allergies. That was an actual professor of pathology at Cambridge that said that in an actual pathology lecture that I was actually at.

... where the line between "normal common-sense adequate washing" and "overdoing it" is just north of what I do, obviously

I give them a preliminary wash until they look clean in whatever water's left over from washing other stuff I've used in food prep and then change the water so they're washed again in hot, fresh waer.

Wash last. Often have a fresh bowl by then anyway, but give stuff a rinse if I think water might be dirty.

Well glad I'm not the only one who has thought about this, DH thinks I'm being a bit of a loon but obv not!
HelenLynn your paranoid side seems in tune with mine so I think we must be right!

Boards that have been used to chop raw meat should first be washed in cold water. This is to prevent the proteins left behind from coagulating onto the board when in contact with hot water and making them much harder to remove. Once the board is visibly clean then wash in hot soapy water then rinse.
No need to use antibacs

I suppose mine all gets washed together in the dishwasher! Although it all gets rinsed off with clean water. Can't be that bad for otherwise dishwashers wouldn't e designed that way!

I do least greasy to greasiest. I always use the same board for raw meat anyway. I often wash my raw meat board and knife as soon as I have finished using it as I don't like it lying around.

I'm vegetarian and dp isn't. I do my washing by by order of person who uses the items, so baby stuff first, then my veggie stuff, then dp's disgusting meat stuff.