Try not to touch your mobile while cooking as you could spread dangerous bacteria. You can always use voice commands instead. — Photo: Christin Klose/dpa-tmn
Leaving a cooking video running next to the stove or constantly checking the next step in a recipe may seem perfectly natural. How else can you cook?
For many amateur chefs, smartphones have become indispensable kitchen aids. But you often pick up your phone while cooking when a message or call comes in, too.
That can easily happen at the exact moment as you are handling raw meat, maybe even chicken. The raw meat can transmit bacteria such as Campylobacter or Salmonella, which can cause severe gastrointestinal illness, says the North Rhine-Westphalia Consumer Advice Centre.
So if you use your phone while preparing food without washing your hands thoroughly in between, you are wiping the germs directly onto your device.
Unfortunately, that means they are then transferred repeatedly onto your hands, other food and kitchen surfaces, say consumer protection agencies, which outline how germs spread.
Even simple splashes of water can be dangerous, as they can spread germs to your smartphone. That's why you should not wash meat at all.
The figures will differ place by place but 1 million people in Germany fall ill every year due to pathogens in food, according to estimates. So careful hand washing in the kitchen is very important.
Consider where else you use your phone
Try and make a conscious effort to separate the use of smartphones from contact with food, say consumer advisors. You could use voice control, to help reduce direct finger contact.
These efforts are even more important considering recent research suggesting many of us use our phones also when we are on the toilet - and separately, do not wash our hands after using the bathroom.
A recent study found nearly half of people don't wash their hands after using the toilet.
Researchers from the University of Surrey in the United Kingdom found that 43.7% of toilet users in a Danish hospital did not use the sink after relieving themselves. In some weeks, this figure even rose to 61.8%.
This raises "serious concerns about hygiene compliance in high-risk environments," the university said. "Despite the emphasis on hand hygiene during the pandemic, the findings suggest that regular handwashing is still not a consistent habit – even in places where cleanliness is vital for preventing infection spread."
"People may assume handwashing is second nature by now – especially in hospitals and post-Covid-19," explained the study's lead author, Pablo Pereira-Doel. "But our data paints a different picture." – dpa
