Dare to Ask: Wash the dishes, then rinse, right?

By PHILLIP MILANO, The Times-Union

Question

I'm an American in a foreign country that has a lot of British ex-pats. I notice when they do dishes, they usually don't rinse them. Why? It seems strange - wanting to eat off dishes with soap scum all over them.

Susan, 35, Istanbul, Turkey

Replies

I don't know, either, and I'm a Brit! I was always taught to rinse the soapy dishes under the tap after washing, but lots of people do not do this.

Eve, 24, Exeter, United Kingdom

It's called saving water. I've had friends from the States comment on this as well, as we do the same thing in Australia. Here it's more a matter of not wasting precious drinking water on something so redundant.

Matt, 26, Australia

Here we do the same thing. If you're washing dishes, you'd usually lather them and rinse them, but if soap does get on rinsed dishes, it's just left to dry. The water is supposed to be hot, so that kills bacteria, anyway.

Sadhbh, 15, Dublin, Ireland

I think it's common . . . where water is expensive and people try to be environmentally conscious.

Sofia, 28, Odense, Denmark

It's not just Brits. I worked with a guy who'd wash his lunch dishes in the lunch room. He'd build up this huge lather that he never fully rinsed off his dishes. I wondered why he couldn't taste the soap, especially in his coffee mug.

Vail, 40, Philadelphia

Experts say

Why, it's a regular U.N. Conference on Dish Washing, convened right here at Dare to Ask! (Memo to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon: To promote robust dialogue, always try to tie world crises to soap and hygiene issues.)

Katharine A. Lancy, whose Swanton British Travel Service coordinates tourist trips to Britain and who travels there frequently, has seen Brits do this, thought it "odd" but assumed the soap dried quickly and didn't pose a health problem.

"They tell me it's just a habit, that they just dry them off. It's an Old World habit."

The British in general are further along in conservation, though, whether it's of water, or using smaller refrigerators, or growing gardens, she noted.

"We [in the U.S.] are a little spoiled. They lead simpler, less-expensive and more natural lives."

As to whether unrinsed dishes are nasty, Elizabeth Scott, biology professor and founder of the Simmons College Center for Hygiene and Health in Boston, says it's not the ideal.

"I don't think it's a huge issue," said Scott, who is British. "The hygiene has to do with rubbing the dishes, and the hot water killing the bacteria. But I'd say a more complete hygiene procedure would be to rinse."

Dousing dishes with hot water and letting them drip-dry is best, because anything that avoids using another cloth to wipe them reduces transfer of bacteria, she said.

Overall, though, Scott hasn't seen much "non-rinsing" going on over in Britain.

"I don't see many people [hand-washing] dishes to begin with," she said. "They do have dishwashers, even in the U.K."

Phillip Milano, author of I Can't Believe You Asked That! (Perigee), moderates cross-cultural dialogue at Y? The National Forum on People's Differences. Visit www.yforum.com to submit questions and answers. Send general column comments to phillip. milano@jacksonville.com. You can also hear his podcasts or watch his TV spots.