Acceptable or Unhygienic?

I'm off to bed to dream of germs! Hope there's no dust mites lurking! After all I did vacuum the mattress after watching a program about the ugly critters that lurk in mattresses lol! But that's another thing to worry about. ? ?

Often on TV cookery shows top chefs have to be reminded to wash their hands after handling raw meat. What happens in their own kitchens? Also they arrange the food on the plate with their hands.

Bijou while not disputing the necessity of doing it, I have never seen a "top chef" on TV being reminded to wash his hands!
There seems to be a lot of hype about all the dreadful,things which might assail us, OP merely talked about a shop assistant helping herself to a lippy tester (silly girl, but no skin off my nose, as I'm not going to be buying a tester!) and somehow it has morphed into a litany of things that seem to threaten our well being.
There is not much you can do about other people if they do indeed have dirty habits, but common sense precautions generally keep us safe. Gloves on public thransport especially in the "flu" season, washing our own hands, wiping supermarket trolley handles if it really bothers you, an extra basket in the trolley for the same reason. (Although I put my shopping straight into my own bags as I use the Waitrose self scanner)
If you witness sloppy hygiene in a shop or café, take your custom elsewhere and tell them WHY. Somehow I survived 30 + years of runny nosed teenagers in a school working environment that was its own health hazard and brought up 3 children with a succession of dogs.
If there is one thing that is fundamental it is handwashing -and properly not just running the tap over your fingers, before cooking, before meals, after gardening, after handling anything dirty, taking bins out etc etc etc.
Our mothers and grandmothers generation coped with much "dirtier" conditions than most of us could imagine, no antibacterial products, no Marigolds, soap not Dettox - and we survived.

Well actually the infant mortality rate was very high in times past DH so not all survived.

Although obviously 'we' did or we wouldn't be here posting now

You are absolutely right Anya and puerperal fever which accounted for so many maternal deaths was a consequence of a lack of awareness of the necessity for strict hygiene at and around childbirth so it does bring us back in a circle to dirty habits!
But we are talking of extremes here and the failure of antibiotics to cope with some strains of germs/infection shows us that we need to rethink our own reliance on a-b's to deal with infection - back to hand washing and better hygiene -and taking more responsibility for our own health in the first place. Ironically it is the widespread availability of antibiotic products which may have undermined that.

Having worked (when my kids were little ) in restaurant kitchens and as a chambermaid you guys who take your packet of wipes for handles etc make sure you NEVER eat out or order a TAKEAWAY because what goes on in kitchens will really kill you off
As for pillows my son who is married to a lovely girl whose a clean freak and sprays every known surface, take their OWN pillows everywhere even on holidays abroad I consider it an illness to be so worried that you ve got to travel around the world with ruddy pillows under your arms it's totally unatural to be so worried about yourself NARCISSISTIC even Half the world would love to put their heads on any pillow

Yes like you Badenkate I m amazed I m alive by these standards Yes I wash my hands and observe basic hygiene standards but this complete paranoia about self is disturbing

It's laughable I presume none of you Hygeiene Warriors have ever married or kissed anyone, exchanging body fluids with people, makes trolley handles look a doddle

Same here BlueBelle, how on earth have I lived this long being such a slut.

But would you want to exchange body fluids with every Tom Dick or Harriet who licks their fingers to open the poly bag he/she puts your cream cake into, and then lifts the cream cake in with the same fingers?

Perspective is the key - tummy bugs are passed on by people who handle food without washing their hands, people with weak immune systems need to be careful, and so on, but taking your own pillows on holiday is definitely OTT.

Bijou, you are concerned that chefs arrange food on the plate with their hands. How else would they do this? Trusting soul that I am, I've been eating at restaurants for around 70 years and still have a healthy gut. Gosh! I never thought about that hands-on thing!

I very much agree with taking responsibility for our own health DB and not just by hygiene choices such as good hand washing but also through lifestyle and diet.

BUT there is an element of 'well they never had this is the good old days and we all survived somehow' which of course is rubbish as you will agree.

Must be the season of goodwill ? ? I do indeed agree with you Anya!! ??

Well! All I said was that I didn't like to see large children sitting in the main part of the supermarket trolleys with shoes on and seem to have brought down a load of scorn on my head and been called some names which anyone who knows me do not apply.
I hope I'm sensible without being precious or even hysterical.

I never thought to wipe the handles of the trolleys with anti-bacterial wipes, perhaps I should in case someone has delved their hands into dog poo before shopping.

However, knowing the likelihood of most children to tread in anything in their path, having cleaned dog poo off small shoes many times in the past, it is still something I don't like to see.

Anya - as you imply many children and adults didn't survive in the 'good old days'.
But lack of survival wasn't only due to poor hygiene. What about the standard of health care, including mass immunisations against childhood illnesses, antibiotics, lower risks during childbirth, healthier housing conditions etc?

Bluebelle I have heard of people taking their pillows with them wherever they go and just assumed it was because hotel pillows were too hard/soft/flat/bulky or whatever.
Not for hygiene purposes!

Jalima, I agreed with you regarding older children standing in trolleys.

The idea of taking my own pillows on holiday,for hygiene reasons,wouldn't even enter my head. I must be a right slovenly slut.. But it does puzzle me that if they are taking them purely for hygiene reasons,rather than for comfort,why don't they go the whole hog and take their own duvets and duvet covers and sheets etc? If they are THAT concerned about using a pillow that umpteen people before them have used,even with a pillow case on it,what's the difference between that and using a hotel room duvet? At the other end of the spectrum,I get really wound up by people on TV who lay on a bed (or sofa) with their outdoor shoes on. They are usually the same people that dump a shopping bag or handbag,that has been on the floor in the street or the floor of a public toilet,on a kitchen worktop then prepare food on that worktop. But they make an huge fuss about sitting on a seat in a public place that might have the tiniest bit of dirt on it that may 'contaminate' their clothes!

We always go on holiday with hand luggage only if at all possible. We'd be a bit short on clothes if we packed our feather pillows into those little wheelie cases. They'd be a lot lighter though - in fact if DH sees this he'll be demanding the pillows come with us, just to stop me doing my usual trick of cramming in half my shoe and costume jewellery collection at the risk of putting his back out as he hefts it into the overhead locker.

Diddy1 You have left me wondering if you are actually serious about mums not licking their babies dummies.

What must be even worse for you to cope with, is that many mums let their babies suck their nipples to get the milk out.

For heavens sake! To follow your "dummy" analogy we should not be kissing our babies or blowing raspberries on them.

Apparently if a baby has the sniffles then the mother's milk When a baby is sick, the baby's saliva stimulates the breast to make antibodies specific to the illness.

Clever!

Ignore first bit of post

The man who cleans our local Tesco in the mornings uses a broom and shovel and a Tesco trolley that he fills with bags of rubbish from the bins. He then takes the rubbish to the skip around the back of the store before he returns the trolley to the trolley park.
I said to one of the staff I would have thought that Tesco could afford a sweepers barrow. She replied "those sweeper trucks are expensive".

Go back and suggest they invest in a garden wheelbarrow, caretaker. They could order one from Tesco Direct and maybe even get a discount - and club vouchers.

Pillows on holiday?
I take a blow up one, weighs nothing , if, for the squeamish, you can cover it with a light towel.