Yeah I have a family member with the same... I guess let's go broad-spectrum and call it germophobia?
Point being, they have a right to not eat the stuff. I'm the person who'll dip the wooden spoon into a sauce or stew, taste it, and then put the spoon right back in the simmering liquid, but I certainly don't do that if I'm cooking for said sibling.
I think that's mainly a function of 'who is responsible for providing the feed'. He probably wouldn't have been able to get away with such foibles if we were all still in the same house, simply because the way Mum has done stuff for 20 years isn't going to change so readily.
Yes, this is exactly my perspective. I'm one of those people, although I'm not a germophobe — honestly, you could autoclave a spoon someone else had used and it would still gross me out, it's not about germs but about some vaguely-defined lizard-brain feeling of contamination — but I just... prepare my own food, and don't get mad at other people for doing things that don't bother them. It's basic charity.
It isn't just things like that. If, for example, we have a very large bowl of salsa on the table, my Ma will refuse to take the serving spoon and transfer it to the small bowls set out for that exact purpose. Instead, she will use said serving spoon as an eating spoon to gobble the salsa right out of the bowl. Then get pissed when it has to be thrown out because I refuse to touch it afterward.
That's gross, but why are you still eating with these people? And, well, having to throw stuff out is also an understandable thing to be upset over, and I'd counsel
both of you to calm down. There doesn't need to be anger.
And I can assure you from my personal experience that there are many people who don't understand the concept of a serving spoon, including some who will tell you that it's classist. This isn't a character flaw so much as just a really disgusting, unfortunate way of being that we all have to learn to accept. From a separate table.
ETA: let me add:
And yet you seem to think that I have no right to be pissed off at people insisting that regularly doing just that is no big deal. You also act as if "complying with your request would require the tiniest bit of effort on my part" is sound reason to declare any request irrational and worthy of a derisive dismissal.
I don't think anyone ever has a
right to be pissed off.
Sure, sometimes it happens whether you want it to or not, but it's really something we should all try to get past.
(And it doesn't even have to require effort! I approve of dismissing any and all requests for any reason, because requests are supererogatory.)