Food Are we to clean

[Chillie]

The way prep,cook even eat food today, are we all to clean? giving new stonger strains of super bugs to deveolp and becoming immune to all the every day cleaning chemicals/ materials we use in our kitchen's.

What happened say 50 years ago when a good scrub with hot soapy water killed everything, we never had so may bugs as we have now, you dropped something on the floor you gave it wipe on your ganzie and put it into your mouth.Years ago there was little heard of E-coli, Bird Flu etc, i feel this all done now at our pearl.

To emphasize this look at all the rules and regulations every catering premise has to put up with, look at this web site its an eye opener.

http://www.highland.gov.uk/prots/eh-inspections/eh-inspections-intro.htm

[JAWS]

Chillie, you have got absolutely the right idea.
OK, there are places where cleanliness is absolutely necessary, hospitals and so on.

In everyday life, however, there has been an attempt, as with many other things, to make us absolutely paranoid.
One child get a tummy-bug from an animal and panic stations. If a child goes within 200 yards of a farm animal then you have to make sure that the child is scrubbed in disinfectant from head to foot. (Well almost)
The warning that have occasionally appeared have made me to conclude that no child brought up on a farm can survive past the age of five.

Many children brought up in fairly large urban areas never get anywhere near a bit of muck. Their immune systems are never built up and when they come across various bugs the system is overwhelmed.

If you listen to the Food Standards people you would never eat anything. By the time you have buttered a piece of bread and got it to your mouth it is so contaminated that you are already well on your way to killing yourself with food poisoning.

I only wish some of them would take the time to explain just how the human race managed to survive before all these Rules and Regulations were invented.
Could it be that if they did they would be out of a job?

[connieb19]

Chillie, you have got absolutely the right idea.
OK, there are places where cleanliness is absolutely necessary, hospitals and so on.

In everyday life, however, there has been an attempt, as with many other things, to make us absolutely paranoid.
One child get a tummy-bug from an animal and panic stations. If a child goes within 200 yards of a farm animal then you have to make sure that the child is scrubbed in disinfectant from head to foot. (Well almost)
The warning that have occasionally appeared have made me to conclude that no child brought up on a farm can survive past the age of five.

Many children brought up in fairly large urban areas never get anywhere near a bit of muck. Their immune systems are never built up and when they come across various bugs the system is overwhelmed.

If you listen to the Food Standards people you would never eat anything. By the time you have buttered a piece of bread and got it to your mouth it is so contaminated that you are already well on your way to killing yourself with food poisoning.

I only wish some of them would take the time to explain just how the human race managed to survive before all these Rules and Regulations were invented.
Could it be that if they did they would be out of a job?I totaly agree here too. I mean even 25 years ago from now it was so different. I remember going into "Scurls" in High Street for my shopping. It was the best grocer shop here ever was. The trays of Johnstons bekerey stuff was out on the counter and everyone picked up what they wanted. Eveyones hands were all over it None of this prepacked nonsense. It was the old manky wooden boards too and flies all over the stuff. It never caused anyone any harm. There was none of this carry on with staff wearing gloves to slice the meat either. They would slice your bacon first then your spam then wipe their hands on their pinny before handling the money, then on to the next customer. The service was great and everyone loved that shop.
I mean when we were kids there was none of this steralizing any thing that dropped on the floor. If a babies dummy fell on the ground we sould give it a sook and back in the mouth. We would be making butter with the sour milk and then flour scones with the buttermilk, nothing went to waste. I mean we never heard of a best before date, your own common sense told you whether something was fit to eat or not.
Today everything has to be sanitised, people are not able to build up an immune system and the slightest germ they are ill.
Give me the good old days anytime!!

[Tugmistress]

I totally agree, this sterilisation of everything is what has made an awful lot of the population susceptable to more and more bugs/germs whatever.
I was brought up where a dropped sweetie or lolly was rinsed under the tap and given back to me, i ate apples straight from trees and i am quite sure i ate a lot of mud at points too ;) (as kids do when they get grubby)
Cleanliness has gone too far IMHO as has been said above more eloquently than i could ever put it :)

[Fesman]

It is quite common to associate dirt with germs.

It is also not a new notion.

I suppose that the association is as a consequence of observing cause and effect.

I would be rather loathe to return to the hygiene standards we enjoyed, even 10 years ago.

All these new bugs we have been hearing about over the past few years have actually been killing people for centuries..... but no-one knew they existed.

As we become more informed, we become more paranoid, but there can be no doubt that it makes no sense to ingest contaminated food.

There is also no doubt, that the food we eat today, is as germ free as is humanly possible.... exceptions always occur.

It is folly to suggest that an item picked up off the floor 25 years ago and popped in the mouth would do less harm than it would today.

I think that the biggest problem we have is the ability for harmful virii and bacteria, etc to adapt to the preventative measures we devise.

Hot soapy water will still kill bacteria, but only those harmless ones we have been killing for years.

In short, I find it futile to bemoan modern sanitation standards.... they'll keep me alive :)