Food for Thought: Some Added Bacteria With Your Meal?

Communal meals are a key part of Chinese food culture, but it seems food isn’t the only thing that gets shared over dinner. Dr Richard’s most recent post “Don’t Share Chopsticks! (If You Can Avoid It)” looks at the germs and infections spread through the much loved group dining habit.

The blog points to several studies that have shown dipping into shared dishes with utensils – be they chopsticks or spoons – that are then used for eating results in a large transfer of bacteria, spreading infections from colds and flu to hepatitis and gastrointestinal bacteria.

To quote Dr Richard: “Research has… suggested that such sharing of utensils is a common cause of spreading infections such as H pylori, hepatitis, and simple colds and flu, as well as many gastroenteritis bacteria.”
One way of tackling the potential health problem is using separate serving utensils that aren’t going into anyone’s mouth, though in many Chinese restaurants this is not always a possibility.

Another option is to bring your own chopsticks, which also helps the environment by cutting down the use of disposable chopsticks – as we noted last year China’s disposable chopsticks habit means the felling of 100 acres of trees every 24 hours.

If you need another reason to avoid disposable chopsticks, last year reports emerged claiming “toxic chemicals including sulfur, hydrogen peroxide and paraffin are believed to be used to keep disposable chopsticks white and smooth.”

Small, pocket-sized portable chopstick packs are readily available on sites such as Taobao.