I understand the need for hand-washing and food safety procedures. What I don't understand is how you physically manipulate raw meat while maintaining safety. For example, if I'm roasting a chicken, I need to unwrap the bird, put it on the cutting board, blot it dry, salt and pepper it (thus handling loose salt and the pepper grinder while also turning the bird, holding the body cavity open, etc.), and put it on the roasting pan. It feels like I need to stop every ten seconds to wash my hands, but that can't be right, can it? If nothing else, the precariousness of balancing a chicken on its shoulders while holding the cavity open with one hand so I can pour salt in with my untainted other hand just seems wrong.
So: how do you safely manipulate raw meat?