I'm also a firm believer that rigidly sticking to anti-bacterial agents, 'best before' dates and scaremongering from advertising agencies is doing us no long term favours. This scaremongering builds on the lack of proper food hygiene taught in school these days, now that 'domestic science' is a pair of dirty words.

Since the demise of proper 'cookery' lessons for both sexes, safe food preparation has become the skill of a few, rather than the habit of all. So much food is pre-packaged and already prepared, that many people don't know how to do a simple thing like cook a healthy, nutritious meal from raw ingredients that still have stalks and dirt on them.

There was an interesting selection of adverts one afternoon last week. 1st up was an advert for Immodium, a diahorrea medicine, shortly followed by one for Senakot, a constipation medicine. Immediately following those was the one that starts 'Fact, there are more germs on your chopping board than on your toilet'. Does anyone else think that these three adverts are related and that proper education would eliminate the need for all three from the home?

There is a place for hand sanitisers - hospitals, where germs can and often do kill. They are not necessary in schools or the home where parents and teachers should teach the child proper hygiene - washing hands with soap and water when needed.

LTS