Is eating with hands still unacceptable?

While a recent survey has rated ‘Chicken Tikka Masala’ as the most ordered Indian dish in UK, many British Indians still feel that ‘eating with their hands’ is looked down upon in this country.

While the survey showed that the British spend almost £2.5m on Indian food making it the most popular cuisine in this country, many Indians living here feel that their culture of eating with their fingers is frowned upon.

David Marland, a British student at Bournemouth University says that he finds the habit very weird. “It is quite a strange thing,” he says.

Anee Jayaraj, a young media professional from Bournemouth says: “In a restaurant I do feel like I’m in the minority if I eat with my fingers so I prefer using a knife and a fork. One of my friends here even said that it was not classy to eat using my hands.”

Mukul Mago, investment banker at JP Morgan, London says that many of his English friends ask him why Indians eat with their fingers. “Some people are like it’s so unclean but some are just curious to know why we eat with our fingers but I tell them it is just to enjoy the food properly. I have Muslim friends who eat with their fingers at restaurants and people do look at them and wonder what’s happening.”

However, Shaun Whelan who is the Senior Press Officer at the UK Food Standards Agency shatters all doubts about using hands being unclean. He says: “There is absolutely no hygiene threat so far as eating with hands is concerned. It is the preparation of the food that is important and washing of hands is highly important as well. But once hands are washed between food preparation and before eating the food, there is absolutely no risk.

“I was in India earlier this year and noticed that whichever restaurant I went to, all the Indians would make it a point to wash their hands before and after meals, which I think is very hygienic.”

On the other hand there are many Indians living in the UK who have given up eating with hands and prefer using the English way of eating for many reasons.

Priscilla Roxburgh, who a Bournemouth resident who is from India says: “I don’t really eat with my fingers in restaurants here because they don’t have hand-washing facilities like they do in restaurants in India. In India there are bowls of warm water that are brought to you at restaurants. So it really doesn’t make sense eating with your hands here.”

Puja Vedi is the editor of Tandoori magazine, which deals with the UK Indian food industry. She offers a solution to this issue: “It’s just a question of creating that awareness by probably making up these cookery classes or some other such courses and maybe a part of the course should be about eating with your hands. If people like to learn how to cook the Indian way and eat the Indian food, I’m sure they can learn to eat the Indian way; there is absolutely nothing unclean about it.