[Hannah LS (OP)]

Graham asks:

We are often told by the experts and the media to wash our hands before eating, not to refreeze defrosted meat and not to reheat leftover rice, but now I have met people that do not follow these rules and they claim that they have lived this way all of their lives and they are fine. What is the truth please?

Any thoughts?

[Bored chemist]

Walking across the road without looking won't usually kill you...

[syhprum]

Failing to wash your hands before preparing food for yourself can do little harm as you would only ingest bacteria to which you are already acclimatised but it may well be harmful if eaten by other people.

[alancalverd]

Similar statistics apply to rice cooked by yourself or others (e.g. a takeaway) and meat that has been thawed then refrozen from "just thawed" without being unpacked. If the meat has reached room temperature for a few hours, it may well be crawling with n bugs that might be killed by immediate cooking but will simply remain dormant if refrozen, then multiply again to n² during the second thawing, but  if  the meat has not exceeded 5 deg C (usual refrigerator temperature) the rate of multiplication of most bacteria will be very low. That's why turkeys and large joints should be thawed in the fridge.

[ATMD]

I once had a stomachache while typing on the keyboard and eating finger foods

[jimbobghost]

I once mated on a sport fishing boat.

i knew the guests to be gentlemen, who under normal circumstances would observe the usual rules of hygeine...however while out fishing, they would eat at leisure, seldom even washing their hands despite the many ways germs might introduce themselves (the guests apparently felt that fishing gave them a kind of absolution from the normal rules.)

i never heard of one dying from a septic desease

[Bored chemist]

I once mated on a sport fishing boat.

I'd ask "with whom?" but a gentleman never tells.

[jimbobghost]

we don't...but thanks for your interest

[alancalverd]

Gin palaces are mating-bait, but surely the point of a fishing boat is to catch fish (unless you have an oilskin and wellies fetish)?

Anyway, if fishing close inshore, particularly around the UK coast, you are basically breathing spray and dangling your tackle in other people's sewage so a prepacked sandwich or pasty is probably the least infectious thing you are going to ingest all day. Deep water, despite the plague of plastic, is generally considered fairly innocuous unless you hook a shark. Most angling fatalities are caused by cooking the fresh catch on a leaking gas stove.