My extended family licks their fingers while eating, cooking, and serving. This drives me absolutely crazy and I just want to know if other adults do this, too. I don't GET it. Your hands are going to get messy while cooking....just wipe them off or wash them as you go along. You will get messy eating certain finger foods, too. Wipe your fingers and keep going until you are done and then just wash them! And SERVING?? Sheesh! Or serving yourself among a buffet and licking away?? Anyway, just how common is this?? Is it just my family? My husband and children certainly don't do this, so I am breaking the trend, fortunately, but just how prevalent IS this practice and how right or wrong am I? I am a known germ freak, but this just can't be right!!

By Jackie on Sunday, April 6, 2008 - 11:21 am:

I can honestly say I do not..I never really thought about it until now LOL..My husband does not. My 3 yr old will though LOL...we tell her to use her napkin.

By Yjja123 on Sunday, April 6, 2008 - 11:22 am:

NO---I am constantly washing my hands when I cook.

By Karen~admin on Sunday, April 6, 2008 - 12:23 pm:

I use so much paper towels when cooking, it's ridiculous. Frequent hand washer here too.

By Yjja123 on Sunday, April 6, 2008 - 01:08 pm:

Speaking of paper towels----we have them every where. They are in every bathroom, the kitchen, etc. I can't stand using regular towels to wipe my hands. I can't handle the thought of what germs may be on the towel. No hand towels in my house. Am I the only one?

By Eve on Sunday, April 6, 2008 - 03:24 pm:

Gosh, I'm trying to think. I'm sure I have at some point licked them. Like when baking a cake, but I also wash my hands too. If I were serving people, I would definately wash more frequently and be more aware of germs. Like whentasting soup that I am cooking, I always take a clean spoon each time to taste. Do you mean they never wash at all?!

By Eve on Sunday, April 6, 2008 - 03:24 pm:

OH! With hot wings, I lick! I also wipe, but sorry, yeap, I do! Eeew! ;)

By Ginny~moderator on Sunday, April 6, 2008 - 04:14 pm:

I might lick my fingers when cooking, but then I wash my hands and dry them before going back to cooking. I'd never do that when serving. If eating messy finger foods I might lick my fingers, depending on the setting. If I'm with family, maybe; never in a restaurant or other public setting.

Never when serving myself from a buffet - it looks and probably is unsanitary. Frankly, I don't see how one could get one's fingers involved when taking food from a buffet, unless the host/ess doesn't put out serving utensils or one chooses to ignore the serving utensils. Yuck!

By Reds9298 on Sunday, April 6, 2008 - 04:59 pm:

Don't lick my fingers, maybe OCCASIONALLY when I bake, which isn't often. Never for serving though. Lots of paper towels here, too. Hand towels disgust me, really! They seem like germ traps to me.

When you hand wash dishes, do you ever dry them? I rarely do, unless it's absolutely necessary. Then I use a fresh towel and it goes in the dirty laundry as soon as I'm done. When I hand wash, I always air dry.

By Dana on Sunday, April 6, 2008 - 08:15 pm:

If I'm cooking for just my immediate family, yes, I lick. I also wash often. And I will lick if it is something really tasty like cake mix or gravy or mashed tators. But I have to really like the stuff. Otherwise I don't even taste what I cook. I think that drives my husband more crazy than licking.

He always asks "so how is it?" while I'm cooking and usually I answer "I don't know, haven't tasted it yet" He has no clue how I can cook without tasting. But I can just tell by smells mostly or looks.

In public no way. Well, I lick at the table with my own foods but I'm not making a scene with it. I won't pick my teeth either if food gets stuck.

If I am serving guests in my home, I make a conscience effort not to lick. And if I do, I wash afterwards.

By Crystal915 on Sunday, April 6, 2008 - 09:34 pm:

Ditto Ginny, I'll lick my fingers then wash them if handling food that is for my family. I would lick my fingers while eating finger foods if the setting was appropriate, but you shouldn't be eating finger foods in any other setting!

By Tunnia on Sunday, April 6, 2008 - 09:38 pm:

I, on rare occasion, lick my fingers if they get messy while I'm cooking, but then I immediately wash my hands. I wash my hands a lot while I'm cooking almost to the point of being a bit obsessive about it.

When eating a messy food, yes I lick my fingers then I wipe them on my napkin. After eating I wash my hands completely. I don't worry about germs on my hands when I'm eating because I wash my hands immediately before I sit down at the table.

By Imamommyx4 on Sunday, April 6, 2008 - 11:45 pm:

CHOCOLATE!!!! About the only time I can think of that I might lick my fingers is if chocolate is involved. I am otherwise constantly washing and drying with paper towels.

By Dandjmom on Monday, April 7, 2008 - 01:56 pm:

Never liked stuff on ym hands( oddly enough my daughter is the sme way) in head start she woudl not fingerpaint becuae it would get on her hands. Over the years I have turned away form hand towels, i mean everyoen using the same towel to dry. so I have paper towels inthebathroom and kitchen. I go through tso many when cook, I leave the water runnign in the sink the whole time I'm in the kitchen, if i stir somethign I rince the spoon althougth every dish has it's on spoon. I use papertowles t dry ym hands each time I rinse and to wipe the counters wih detergent ( the idea of useing the dish rag to wipe the counter is ugh to me now( everythign on that dishrag is gettign on that counter and my 4 year old doesn't knwo better so sometimes I catch him lying his bread on the bare counter instead of a paper towls when he is making a sandwich. I've just recently stated changing my dish rag every day. I dont' wnat when i had for dinner the inight before on tonights sdishes when I wash them , so if I can ghange the trash bag each night then I can certainly change the dish rag also .

By Dandjmom on Monday, April 7, 2008 - 01:56 pm:

Never liked stuff on ym hands( oddly enough my daughter is the sme way) in head start she woudl not fingerpaint becuae it would get on her hands. Over the years I have turned away form hand towels, i mean everyoen using the same towel to dry. so I have paper towels inthebathroom and kitchen. I go through tso many when cook, I leave the water runnign in the sink the whole time I'm in the kitchen, if i stir somethign I rince the spoon althougth every dish has it's on spoon. I use papertowles t dry ym hands each time I rinse and to wipe the counters wih detergent ( the idea of useing the dish rag to wipe the counter is ugh to me now( everythign on that dishrag is gettign on that counter and my 4 year old doesn't knwo better so sometimes I catch him lying his bread on the bare counter instead of a paper towls when he is making a sandwich. I've just recently stated changing my dish rag every day. I dont' wnat when i had for dinner the inight before on tonights sdishes when I wash them , so if I can ghange the trash bag each night then I can certainly change the dish rag also .

By Cat on Monday, April 7, 2008 - 03:53 pm:

Ditto Ginny. I may lick them, but then I wash my hands before doing anything else. We also have paper towels in every bathroom and the kitchen, but I do have hand towels, too. The kids all use paper. I'm the only one that uses the hand towel in the bathroom and dh and I both use the one in the kitchen. It gets put in the laundry about every day and replaced with a clean one.

By Kaye on Monday, April 7, 2008 - 04:21 pm:

I do lick my fingers when I cook. But then I wash them. I taste food, but mostly use a tasting spoon, if it is just my family I am not obsesive about it.

However we are a dish towel family. I hate the waste of paper towels. I have them, and we do use them on occasion. But I just don't do disposable if I can avoid it. So I change out dishtowels daily and the 1/2 bath handtowel daily. I change the other bathrooms out once or twice a week. In my bathroom, I have my own handtowel, my husband has his, kids don't use it. My dd has her own bathroom. The boys share, but mostly my youngest goes downstairs in the 1/2 bath. Really if they are using soap, the towels are just wet, not germy!

By Dawnk777 on Monday, April 7, 2008 - 04:56 pm:

I was wondering just how dirty a dishtowel could be, if it was clean to begin with and just dried off clean dishes. As long is it was draped over a towel rack to dry, or a chair, or something, and not left in a ball where it couldn't dry properly, wouldn't it still be okay?

I can see starting off fresh with a new one, everyday, but if you only used it once, it really couldn't be THAT dirty.

Also, when we do have paper towel in the house, it seems like use it up SOOOO fast! So, it seems handier to have a towel where I can dry off just-washed hands. I have some cotton towels, that came with a little loop on the back, so I hang them from a refrigerator magnet, so they are always being allowed to dry.

By Yjja123 on Monday, April 7, 2008 - 05:26 pm:

This is an article on how dirty towels are:
We all know that dirty hands can transmit germs and how important it is that we wash our hands
before eating, preparing and handling food or after using the toilet. But washing doesn't solve
the whole problem when it comes to getting hands clean. Because no matter how clean and
bacteria free hands are after washing, drying them on an ordinary kitchen hand towel simply
smears bacteria back on to them.
Kitchen and washroom hand towels are notorious for harboring and breeding bacteria. fuelled
by their shared and frequent use as well as the damp, temperature and humidity conditions that
enable bacteria to multiply uncontrollably!
Tests show that bacteria on a towel can grow from one to 2/3 million in a kitchen or washroom in
a matter of just four hours - to 1bn after 1 days normal use - to 10bn 2-3 days later and to 100bn
plus by the end of the week! Given that we wash hand towels once every week on average its
no wonder that hygienic hand drying is of such crucial importance in the promotion of good food
safety, health and personal hygiene.

By Debbie on Monday, April 7, 2008 - 06:04 pm:

I sometimes lick my fingers when cooking, but then I wash my hands. I am also extra careful when preparing meals for others. And, I would never lick my fingers at a buffet. However, I do lick my fingers at home when I am eating finger foods, but I also use a napkin after.

And, I do use hand towels/dish rags in the kitchen, but I change them out daily.

By Reds9298 on Monday, April 7, 2008 - 06:26 pm:

Interesting article Yvonne - that's exactly what I thought but never really researched. For dish towels and hand towels, it just seems to me that the moisture alone is a breeding ground for bacteria. With the paper towel waste, it's always a debate for being more green. More germs or more waste is how I look at it. I used to use a towel all the time when I was growing up, but once I became a teacher of little ones I also became more aware of germs. That's when I switched to paper towels for most things. There is a hand towel in the bathroom for guests, but it's changed when it's used.