Hand washing in butcher/fishmonger

[Frederick Williams]

I recently bought some raw fish in a shop that also sells raw meat. The
assistant first served someone with meat, then washed his hands, and
then served me. Since the meat and fish will both be cooked before they
are eaten, why is there a need for the hand washing?

[Richard Head]

Post by Frederick Williams
I recently bought some raw fish in a shop that also sells raw meat. The
assistant first served someone with meat, then washed his hands, and
then served me. Since the meat and fish will both be cooked before they
are eaten, why is there a need for the hand washing?
--
Needle, nardle, noo.

Providing the fish is cooked properly so that the bacteria transferred from
the meat are all destroyed then in theory one could argue that in that case
hand washing may not be strictly necessary. But if after handling raw meat
the assistant then handled cooked meat, without any hand washing, the cooked
meat would be eaten as it is plus any bacteria. Food hygiene regulations are
kept simple so that they are easier to comply with. A system of only
requiring hand washing before handling cooked meat/other cooked food but not
requiring handwashing before handling raw meat/other raw food would be hard
to comply with.