Tenor
Health-conscious folks who try to maintain a sanitary household often focus much of their attention on certain areas that are known to contain potentially harmful germs and bacteria. Along with the bathroom, your kitchen can be home to some of the most germ-attracting surfaces in your house. But the spot with the most contamination might surprise you.
Understanding the causes
The primary reason that the kitchen is home to so much bacteria is that surfaces are not being properly cleaned during food preparation. Such cross-contamination can impact the places you’d think of first — cutting boards, garbage bins, countertops, etc. — as well as areas you might not consider to be risky.
Late last year, the Journal of Food Protection conducted research to gauge how well average home cooks cleaned up after themselves using meat that contained identifiable but harmless bacteria.
After compiling the results of the study, researchers determined that more than 8 in 10 cases resulted in the cross-contamination of at least one kitchen surface.
Understanding the risks
While germs were found in a variety of areas, there were some places that were clearly more susceptible.
Perhaps because they are known to be more prone to contamination and are therefore typically cleaned thoroughly, surfaces like cookware handles, sink faucets, cutting boards, and even trash can lids were nowhere near the top of the list.
But even the study’s authors were surprised to find spice containers were the most likely to be contaminated with nearly half of them testing positive for the bacteria.
As professor Benjamin Chapman explained: “It was a little bit of a surprise to us that we saw so much contamination on spice bottles since we were really invested in other parts of the kitchen.”
Raw meat and eggs are among the leading sources of contamination.
