Re-useable coffee cups and food hygiene, am I the only one to be worried?

Like you NanaMacGeek my immune system has been damaged, so I can understand your concern; but it’s all too easy to overthink this kind of issue. We can all make choices relevant to our own circumstances and I shall continue to make my own cups of coffee at home, in what I perceive to be suitably sterile and hygienic conditions (?!), along with the occasional treat of a delicious mug of latte from a suspect and unverified source. Life is for living, and all too short!

I agree completely with the OP - there is a serious public health risk in people bringing in their own mug for a barista to fill.

Herpes virus is so easily spread ('cold sores' after using a glass, mug, or teacup says everything about the establishment hygiene standards being very low - a properly set industrial dishwasher will kill the virus but one set to save energy will not, end of. If I routinely developed cold sores from restaurant or tearoom crockery I'd be making strenuous complaint or at least avoiding the place for the plague locus it is), and that's just the start of the problem - staphylococcus, e.coli, hepatitis...I could go on but the point is why take the chance with public health?! NHS is burdened enough without adding to the strain by in effect taking in whatever germs the last mug to be filled carried.

But people will only be using their own cups, if I've read correctly?

MissAdenture - yes, they'll be using their own cups - with the 'added bonus' of in effect using every other customer's cup as well through the spread of germs/bacteria on those other customers cups.

The barista handles, bare-handed, for example, a cup given them by someone who's just used the convenience without washing their hands - then without gloving up or washing his/her hands, accepts YOUR cup/mug and handles it to make your coffee. Yum - right? (not in my mind, but heigh ho. Clearly people are ok with risking theirs and everyone else' health)

I'll say it again - this 'green' push is a public health menace.

Herpes virus like Aids isn’t caught from cups or toilets it doesn’t live outside the warm environment of the skin and you wouldn’t get it ‘routinely’ from drinking from a certain restaurant, once you have the virus activated it can spring up at any time whether you drink in or out it’s not something that you catch from using mugs

I am amazed that any of us that drink and eat at restaurants cafes or coffee shops are even alive I used to visit an old lady who always insisted on me having a biscuit and cup of tea I did balk slightly one day when I picked the current bun up to eat and realised the currents were moving ?

Longhaulgran don’t eat out stay home much safer

Surely in public places you, the staff and anyone else handles the chairs, the doors, touches the tables, and supplies are delivered from outside. How can you be assured that no germs are spread?

It is impossible to avoid germs! Handrails on staircases, handles on supermarket trolley, door handles/knobs etc.

We just need to be sensible about this.

Shock and horror, when in the 'coffee queue' at my local supermarket I observed one member of staff actually placing his fingers inside' of newly washed cups to lift them out of a tray ready for staff who were serving the customers. Needless to say I walked out but how do we know this does not go on elsewhere?

I agree totally with MissAdventure - this obsession with cleanliness is one reason why people's immune systems are so compromised. Unless you are prepared to wear disposable gloves (also adding to the growing amount of non-recyclable waste) every time you go into your own (let alone a public toilet) you might as well forget anything else because germs are all over toilets, on the door handles, on the taps, on the paper dispenser, on the handles on the doors going out of the toilets etc. And there is abundant research to demonstrate that pristine environments promote asthma in young children because they are not exposed to minimal amounts of germs and therefore cannot build up their immunity. So take your antibacterial wipes with you to clean your coffee cup rim, but do remember that these wipes are NOT organic and therefore you are automatically subjecting your system to some chemical input.

Ah yes I know someone who only drinks from cups at the opposite side to the handle. In my house! With a dishwasher on the go! I always thought I was the germaphobe.

Perhaps we should be like the Japanese taxi drivers with white gloves.

When I was a student (many years ago) I worked in a bar and we were always told - very firmly- that we did not touch the rim of the glasses . Always use the handle, if there was one, or hold the body of the glass.
I think that we do get a bit obsessive about cleanliness etc but these things can't be ignored as so many people have damaged immune systems

At BlueBelle – I’d prefer not to row with you or any Gransnetter. So's ya know, I do get out and about - staying home for safety is for sissies. However, taking foolish risks is simply foolish and I am careful about hygiene when out and about, for one.

Hopefully you’ll take the time to read the following links regarding how HSV-1 (herpes simplex, aka the cold sore virus) is spread, and how other far more serious illness is spread as well. Considering ‘routine’ NHS ops have had to be cancelled owing to an overwhelmed-by-flu crisis, I’d think this a very timely reminder of good hygienic habits, and rules for public health should never be overruled by ‘green’ considerations.

m.kidshealth.org/en/teens/cold-sores.html

Please scroll down to the ‘How do cold sores spread’ section to read the virus is spread by…sharing a cup.

www.nhs.uk/chq/Pages/how-long-do-bacteria-and-viruses-live-outside-the-body.aspx

I repeat – handing your mug to a barista who doesn’t glove up or wash between yours and the previous person’s mug is a public health menace.

I was a career, mainly dementia care, but some of my clients had compromised immune systems, especially if they were having chemo. In those situations you have to take hygiene to another level, it really can be the difference between life and death. I was paranoid when I cared for my mum through her dementia journey, in 8 years of looking after her she never caught anything, thank goodness.

Hand washing is the best Defence, wipes and gels don’t work for norovirus. Most of these outlets don’t have great standards of hygiene. It’s difficult for people with underlying health conditions. Probably best to avoid them.

Its a good job bacteria, viruses, fungi and protozoa are microscopic as we and every surface is crawling with them some good some bad. I am immunocompromised too to the extent at one point the consultant range and said 'don't go anywhere' as my white cells were so low. I don't really worry about going into reputable cafes/ restaurants etc but of course you cant really tell what goes on behind the scenes. I stay away from fast food establishments and street food but other than wash my own hands a lot and enjoy going out. Wetherspoons for lunch today - how about that for a walk on the wild side.

teetime!

Either they must design cups that recycle or we have our coffee in the shop and the cups are washed.
This can't continue it is unsustainable.

I help to run the village pub. Everything - and I mean everything, including wooden plates (we have them for cheese boards) - goes through the dishwasher.
Wax-based lipsticks don't come off in the dishwasher. We have to remember to wipe the lipstick off before putting through the machine. Really annoying... and difficult to manage when the bar is busy. A lipsticked glass is "clean dirt", as my mother used to say - but of course any bar will throw the drink away and give you a fresh one in a clean glass.
If the OP is uncomfortable with the process used to handle her non-disposable cup, she should write to the manager of any shop she uses and ask how they intend to deal with the problem. Enough peple asking, and they will change the process.

We have to live with germs. A sterile environment is not possible unless you are shut away from the outside world. I would rather risk germs than risk our planet sinking under all this rubbish that cannot be recycled.

I don't eat out often or go for coffee, if I go for coffee it is usually to meet friends in a Hotel bar. I do occasionally meet my DD at Costa but it's always inside not take-away. I rarely have a take-away coffee.

I understood that there is a problem with recycling the cups, not heard the word "reuse" for disposable cups.

I carry hand gel for use when I go out, public toilets & supermarket trolleys, now there's a perfect breeding ground for germs.

At home I wash my hands especially when handling food & when I've been in the garden.

Lipstick on glasses, yes that's a problem as it doesn't come off in glass washers, that was my experience when I worked as a Barmaid (40+ years ago), wine glasses were the biggest problem, you don't generally find lipstick on a pint glass, we checked glasses before using.

I thought the point was that we take our own cup with us, so can’t see the hygiene issue here as I don’t think the “baristas” hold the cup by the rim anyway, but further down where you or I might hold it.
It’s like the plastic bag issue, isn’t it, take your own or pay the surcharge.
Perhaps we worry too much, full stop.

Branching off a little - I hate it when ladies put their handbags on table - wonder if they have recently also deposited said bag on floor of public toilet when there was no hook to hang it on ?? OCD ?? Moi ??

At Holy Communion there could be hundreds of people drinking one after the other from the same chalice although if I have germs (like recently) I don't take the chalice. I'm a Eucharistic Minister and we drink what's left in the chalice - I think wine might have an antiseptic quality, I rarely get a cold or any other infections.

Longhaulgran the link you have asked me to read actually says “sharing a cup” which means drinking from the same cup at the same time (straight afterwards) not ten minutes later when it’s been washed My Doctor told me the virus does not live outside the body for any length time so unless you are “sharing “ the cup you won’t catch it from a cup that has been used by another customer removed from the table washed and dried and then refilled for you

You are most likely to get the herpes virus from kissing, a million times more likely than a cup in a restaurant Don’t lets ban that

The reason so many people have problems with infections is because there is such a huge push from firms making all the thousands of cleaning and anti germs products it’s big big money and over recent years people have got caught up in believing it’s necessary