Spouse and I have a discussion on what to do after you pour a sauce out of a glass bottle. I do nothing but my wife takes her finger and wipes the excess from the bottle before she puts the lid back on. I think touching the food is disgusting and she thinks leaving it there to gum up the lid is disgusting. What do people do?
It’s actually getting harder and harder to find condiments in glass. Everything is plastic with an “ez squeeze” spout that don’t really have this problem anymore. But I would use a paper towel to keep the mouth clean because I don’t want the gross shit coming off when using the sauce, nor do I want it gluing the cap to the bottle making it harder to open.
I don’t wipe it unless it gets gummed up but honestly I’ve can’t think of anything where this happens anymore. All of my condiments are either jars or squeeze bottles. I never wipe squeeze bottles and they never get gummed up. Jars only get wiped if they somehow got a bunch of stuff in the grooves, which is excessively rare.
That being said using a finger is nasty and I hope you guys don’t serve guests from those bottles.
Wiping with your finger introduces bacteria from your hands and is not a good idea from a food safety perspective. If you wipe the excess you should do it with a clean towel (like a disposable paper towel/napkin) or at a minimum wash your hands. It’s probably not a huge deal if the sauce is very acidic and the remainder will be used promptly but if it’s like a bottle of a condiment that may be used for weeks probably best practice to keep your grubby fingers out of there
Ultimately, it probably doesn’t matter. Your wife may have a point, but it is completely negated by the fact she’s introducing contaminants from her hand to the food. Using a clean item to remove the excess may be beneficial, especially if the liquid drying can make it hard to open. Again, all of this is splitting hairs if your food is generally stored correctly and nobody is at particular risk for food borne illness. You’re at home, not serving others in a restaurant.
If you touch food prior or during cooking then the cooking process is killing the bacteria. You shouldn't really touch after but even in that situation a small amount of bacteria in food that's about to be eaten isn't the worst. The big issue is bacteria introduced to food which is then stored where the bacteria then grows over time.
If it’s hot sauce, I typically use a napkin to wipe away the residual amount that runs down the neck of the bottle. That’s the only condiment that seems to have that problem. I don’t think I’ve ever had ketchup, mustard, or bbq sauce leak from a bottle so badly that it required me to clean the bottle after using it.
If there’s a decent dribble there I’ll grab a paper towel or napkin and clean it off first, but I usually don’t worry about it. Wiping it off with a finger is disgusting though IMO. Her finger has about a thousand times more nasty stuff than anything in the sauce bottle, that’s a great way to contaminate an entire container.
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