However, it is worth reminding that we should wash our hands before eating, before and after using the toilet, after sneezing or coughing (if we covered our mouth with our hand), before and after contact with food and public places.

As food and human nutrition technologist, Joanna Mulik-Buczma, notes, just touching a door handle, a handrail on a bus or a banknote can invite pathogens.

The expert argues that the screens of our smartphones are also a habitat for microorganisms and, according to research, they contain more harmful bacteria than the flush of a public toilet.

Let’s remember that washing your hands should last from 30 to 60 seconds. Then we have the greatest certainty that the microorganisms on them will be effectively “washed away.”

In addition to remembering to wash your hands, it is also important what you wash them with. It turns out that soap is not always the same. Interestingly, as Joanna Mulik-Buczma argues, the most “traditional” bar soap may be the worst solution.

This is because we often leave bar soap in a humid environment, in a soap dish full of water or in a recess in the bathtub or near the sink. Such conditions mean that dangerous microorganisms transferred there from dirty hands can grow on its surface.

Therefore, liquid soap, which is stored in bottles and does not come into contact with water, seems to be a better solution. However, there may be exceptions in this case, because liquid soap dispensers also need to be cleaned and disinfected regularly before changing the soap.

Nevertheless, the latter is a better solution, especially in public places where hygiene products are used by hundreds of different hands. We can successfully use bar soap at home, but it is worth remembering not to keep it in a soap dish where a large amount of water has accumulated.