WSU Thurston County

720 Sleater Kinney Rd

Lacey WA  98503

360-786-5445

360-455-1575 (fax)

Thurston County Extension

Food Safety:  Kitchen Clean Up

The Olympian, March 18, 1998

In a recent consumer study conducted in 106 homes by Audits International of Highland Park, IL, food safety researchers found that 92 percent of families misused kitchen cloths, towels and sponges in ways that could spread foodborne illness.

Recent microbiological studies have also shown that the kitchen cloths, sponge and dish cloth may look fine but may harbor disease causing bacteria.

Clean is defined by accepted food safety standards as meaning free from dirt and soil. Sanitary, however means that there has been a reduction of bacteria to a safe level that will not cause illness. You aren’t able to "see" sanitary, and it is constantly open to change depending on the treatment the surface receives from cooking preparation and the use of kitchen wipes and sponges.

This week take a look at your personal use of towels, cloths, and sponges in your kitchen.

Question: We often wash our hands in the kitchen and dry our hands with the same towel that is later used to dry a counter top or dry dishes. Can you comment on this practice?

Answer: First, let’s talk about effectively washing your hands. For clean and sanitary hands, you should scrub a full 20 seconds with soap. Unfortunately, most people complete this part of the process in much less time. If you don’t wash your hands for 20 seconds, your hands may look clean, but they may be far from sanitary.

Consider this scenario. You’re rushed to get dinner on the table; you wash your hands, not paying particular attention to the process, and dry them on the towel. Then you cut raw chicken. Again, you rinse your hands and use the towel and possibly contaminate it with Salmonella.

Ten minutes later, your son arrives home from track practice, and you ask him to help set the table. He rinses his hands, using no soap, touches the contaminated towel and then sets the table, cuts some bread from the loaf of bread and sets out the glasses, picking them up by the rim with his contaminated hands.

You have effectively moved the potential Salmonella from the raw chicken from your hands to the towel. Your son has potentially moved the Salmonella and anything else on his hands from the towel to his hands to the flatware, dinner plates, the rim of your drinking glasses, and the bread

If you use that same towel to dry off your counter tops after dinner, you can easily imagine what might happen in your kitchen.

B. Susie Craig

Area Faculty

WSU Cooperative Extension Thurston County

WSU Extension programs and employment are available to all without discrimination.  Evidence of noncompliance may be reported through your local Extension Office.   Cooperating agencies: Washington State University, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the county of Thurston.

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