Food Handling

During the last few weeks, I`ve been watching on television a programme called Masterchef, in which people have been competing to achieve that title. During this last couple of weeks those heading towards the final have been cooking in various places and situations; for the army in the arctic; on the QE2; at top restaurants; for a film crew and actors; as well as producing test dishes in the studio.

One thing that I`ve notices in all these programmes, and which really appals me is the way that so much of the food handling is done with their hands. Not just the competitors, but those instructing them in the top establishments too, were teaching them to arrange the food on the plate using their fingers. Fair enough, we all handle uncooked food like vegetable which are going to be cooked, with our hands, but I was always taught, both at home and in domestic science lessons at school, that you just DID NOT touch with your hands food that other people were going to eat.

So how is it, in these days of strict hygiene regulations in food shops and outlets, that in restaurants the food put onto the plate for people to eat, is allowed to be done with bare hands?