Do Dish Mats Harbor Germs

Studies have found menus to harbor over 100 times the germs found on a typical toilet seat.

Do dish mats harbor germs.

The answer is the restaurant menu. Also the tines of forks provide a nice protected hiding spot for germs. Specifically the researchers found that towels used for a variety of tasks such as wiping utensils drying hands holding hot utensils or cleaning surfaces had more bacteria than towels. But those bacteria actually do poorly on those surfaces gibbons says.

A toilet seat your cellphone or the menu in a restaurant. Where the germs are which of these do you think has the highest bacterial count. Probably not especially if the bar gets rinsed off between. Your dish rags are really no better than your sponges.

Anything that touches your food can be a source of contamination and foodborne illness including cutting boards. And like sponges using a dirty dish rag to clean a kitchen countertop will only spread germs. A dish towel you know a sponge can harbor nasty germs but a recent study of hundreds of homes across the united states found that about 7 percent of kitchen towels were contaminated with mrsa. It is a good idea to cut vegetables on one cutting surface and meats on another.

If you have a cloth bath mat and can t easily wash and dry it completely throw it out. Thanks to an aerosol effect that happens when you flush a toilet with the lid up bacteria can land on damp dark places. To keep cutting boards clean use a solution of one part white vinegar to four parts water. Your best bet is to replace rags about once a.

For example if you cut up a raw chicken and then use the same cutting board to slice a tomato for your salad you run the risk of cross contamination with bacteria from the chicken being transferred to the tomato. Actually when compared to other bacterial laden surfaces toilet seats. But unlike bath towels bath mats aren t washed frequently. Like bath towels bath mats are constantly exposed to damp dark environments bacteria love.

A recent study by the center for innovative food technologies published in the journal of food engineering has shown that milk residues inside of glasses and dishes provide an excellent breeding ground for bacteria so be sure to pay special attention to glasses with those science experiment milk clumps on the bottom.