The biggest and most surprising health hazard in your kitchen
I don’t have to tell you that washing your hands is one of the best ways to keep from getting sick.
But drying your hands – well, that’s another story.
A new study has shown that the chief culprits in the spread of foodborne illness may be contaminated kitchen towels.
Oh, and your trusty cell phone.
Researchers at Kansas State University asked 123 people to prepare a chicken or raw ground beef recipe, along with fruit salad. Both the beef and chicken were laced with a harmless bacteria to see where any cross-contamination might occur.
By the end of the test, researchers found the tracer bacteria had spread to 90 percent of the fruit salad – and filthy kitchen towels may have been to blame.
It happens like this – you get raw beef or chicken on your hands, and then dry them on the kitchen towel without washing your hands first. Bacteria multiply on the towels and spread to your hands when you use the towels again.
In fact, researchers found that towels were “the most contaminated of all the contact surfaces tested.”
Cloth towels stored overnight were breeding grounds for germs, even if they were washed and rinsed in the sink after use. Paper towels, researchers found, were also spreading bacterial contamination when they were reused after drying messy hands.
Now if you’re wondering how cell phones got involved in this study, apparently we have a hard time putting them down when we’re cooking. And it isn’t long before that touchscreen or keypad is crawling with germs.
So if you still use cloth towels in your kitchen, the only way to really clean them is in the washing machine, not hanging them off the sink. And paper towels should be thrown out after one use.
As for your cell phone, if you must talk on it while preparing food, be sure to wipe it down with a disinfectant.
Or better yet, put it in another room where you won’t hear it ring while making dinner!
Source:
“Study reveals germiest spot in your kitchen” March 26, 2015, Newsmax Health, newsmax.com
