Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Cutting boards and vegetarians

[Hollie Butler (hollie]

Separating cutting boards and other implements makes me uneasy. If utensils
and boards are cleaned adequately (and in many cases people will need to be
trained as to what is an "adequate cleaning") there is no reason for a
separation of meat and veggie. Separating them implies that germs from the
meat will be left on the veggie boards. If that is happening, then that
means folks aren't cleaning well enough, which should be alarming to both
the meat eaters and the vegetarians.

I have had many vegetarian friends who believe that they don't have to be as
diligent cleaning their veggie-only cutting boards or utensils. This makes
me nervous. I read, late last year, that the highest rise in food poisoning
was occurring with *non-meat* food. There is a general belief out there that
veggies and fruits have no danger of poisoning someone, which is completely
false. Some of the nastiest bacteria out there exist in the soil.


-hollie


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Trillium Hollow Cohousing
Portland, Oregon
hollie [at] meandering.org
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