When Going Viral Gets Risky: Social Media Food Hacks & Quiet Contamination in Home Kitchens

Cooking used to be a slow skill. People learned it by standing next to someone else — a parent, a grandparent, a friend — watching hands move, hearing warnings, seeing what not to do. Food safety wasn’t a lesson in a textbook; it was built into the rhythm. Wash the board. Don’t touch the pantry knob after raw chicken. Put that in the fridge, not on the counter. Use a clean towel.

Now, a huge portion of “learning to cook” happens on screens. A thirty-second video replaces the repetition of watching someone cook for years. And in that thirty seconds, we see vibrant meals, shortcuts, hacks, and clever tricks — but rarely the steps that don’t film well: scrubbing boards, sanitizing counters, washing h

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