Safety of drying without rinsing

Question

I was recently in a camp where the group of attendees would take turn into cooking and doing the dishes.

There I observed that, while I followed these steps while washing the dishes:

1. coarse rinse with water
2. wipe/scrub with soaped sponge
3. rinse with water
4. wipe dry with a cloth

all the other, when it was their turn, skipped step 3 and directly wiped dry the soapy dish/pan with a cloth.

when I observed "oh, don't you rinse it before drying?" I was just told "nah, not needed".

Is it safe to not rinse the dishes before wipe dry them?

Based on what I know, water will evaporate, but dish soap won't, so the cloth would simply smear a layer of soap all over the dish/pan which will then be ingested with the food going into that dish/pan at the next use.

Answer 1

Taking a mainstream retailer brand, Dawn Dish Detergent, as a representative sampling source (they represent 28.8% of their product segment's market share as of 2022), I've pulled their SDS for their primary flagship (here's an online copy, and a backup for link retention).

Note that although there are precautionary statements and first aid statements for ingestion, there is no known hazard enumerated. There are several CAS components broken out...

...and here's the toxicological data...

...so presumably, the hazards of concern are only present in negligible concentrations.

TLDR; while it certainly would not be pleasant and you'd likely want to avoid accidentally ingesting any whenever possible, there is no evidence at this time that suggests ingestion to be hazardous (under normal use cases).

Answer 2

This probably depends a bit on the wiping technique. Any soap residue left is not a safety risk. So, you are left with concern about tasting the soap. It seems to me that if campers were tasting soap, they would make that known, and the dishwashers would either rinse or take more care in wiping. From a food safety perspective, drying is probably more important. Moisture promotes pathogen growth. So, to answer your ultimate questions, this seems safe.

Answer 3

Many bio-degradable camping dishsoaps are safe to ingest in small quantities.

I would be more concerned about how your food would taste, and about potential particles of food left on the plates due to the lack of rinsing.

Answer 4

I don't think my mother rinsed or dried a dish in her life. They got left to drain & put away when dry.

I've done the same ever since I was old enough to have my own place, though I have shorter patience so will finish off drying them before they're fully aired & put them away sooner.

I'm 63 & it hasn't killed me yet.

Also consider that in a dishwasher, there must be rinsing because all the food is still in the soapy water being sprayed around. Of course, as it rinses, it then puts a separate chemical rinse-aid in the water. End result, you're no longer eating soap, you're eating rinse-aid.