Eli5 why do people say to wash dishes or your hands in warm water when cold slows down bacteria growth?

Question

Eli5 why do people say to wash dishes or your hands in warm water when cold slows down bacteria growth?

In: 722

Answer 1

Basically, washing isn’t about sanitation. Soap and warm water dissolve fat, grease, etc better, and so they wash away wherever is left on your hands and dishes a little easier. This doesn’t need to kill the germs so much as remove them.

Sanitation, killing all the germs, us a second, separate step. In a restaurant, you’d clean your dishes, counters, etc first and then use a germ killing agent (like bleach solution). For hands, there’s alcohol-based sanitizer lotion.