筷子是我們每天進食不可或缺的工具，隨著時代的變遷，國人環保意識的抬頭以及外食人口的增加，免洗筷的使用造成生態環境的傷害以及製作過程與包裝導致免洗筷有安全的疑慮，使得越來越多的外食人口使用環保筷來取代免洗筷；但在外飲食有清理不便的問題，因此本研究探討環保 筷使用的衛生情形。結果顯示無論木頭、不銹鋼及塑膠材質以衛生紙擦拭能有效降低環保筷之總生菌數與大腸桿菌群之數量。木頭、不銹鋼及塑膠材質不處理及衛生紙擦拭皆有脂肪殘留，在水洗則木頭材質無脂肪殘留。三種材質於水洗、不處理及衛生紙擦拭皆有澱粉殘留。建議環保筷最好水洗後再用衛生紙擦拭乾燥，再收起來，若環境允許，使用前用熱水沖洗為佳。 Chopsticks are important tool for us to eat, using the disposable chopsticks can prevent the infection by eating or spit, and it is outstanding for food sanitation and preventing B type hepatitis. The population of outside eater is increasing, the huge dining out population results in great amount of disposable chopsticks, which not only wastes natural resources but also produces much garbage to damage environment. Furthermore, many investigations pointed out that maker often added bleaching agents and antiseptic during manufacturing of the disposable chopsticks, so many people start to use the reusable chopsticks to eat outside, but there are not convenience to adequately cleaning reuse chopsticks when you are outside, many people only use toilet paper or water to clean the reuse chopsticks, so the sanitation of reuse chopsticks is worthy to concern, so this study try to investigate the sanitation of reusable chopsticks. The results showed regardless of the material of Chopsticks, only use toilet paper can effective reduce the total counts and E. coli and the used chopsticks nothing to do are not hygienic and have more residual fat and carbohydrate on them. So we suggest to rinse out hot water and to dry with toilet paper when we are not convenient to clean the reusable chopsticks outsides.
