If you’re like a lot of people, you’ve probably wondered why you have bacteria-induced illnesses.
Maybe you’ve ever wondered why this happens despite carefully preparing your foods to avoid cross-contamination, cleaning your homes regularly and washing your hands every time.
Truth is, there are items in your kitchen that harbor germs. The three most common items are your kitchen sponge, sink and cutting board in that order. If you need any help with cleaning your kitchen or any part of your house, use house cleaning Fairfax services, based on my friends’ experience, their services rank among the best in Fairfax.
However, there are other places, these other places are what you’ll learn about in this article.
Read on to find out…
- The Ice Machines
If you think that bacteria can’t breed or multiply in an ice maker because it is in a freezer, you’re wrong.
Ice machine can be a source of bacteria because remnants of food can be found in the ice maker and people whose hands might have been infected with bacteria put their hands in the ice bin.
The bacteria in ice can be the source of dangerous illnesses, but the good news is, these bacteria are being killed when we pour drinks on the ice.
2. Dirty Hands
If you don’t wash your hands frequently and thoroughly before, during and after preparing your food, germs may be lurking in your hands.
Wash your hands each time you handle raw meat and dry your hands with paper towel. Then, throw away the paper towel at once.
3. Handles of Your Appliances
Most times when we clean, we hardly clean the handles of our appliances. For example, your refrigerator’s door handle, dishwasher handle, sink handle, or oven handle.
Thus, they become a habitat for germs in your kitchen.
So, when next you clean, don’t forget to clean all your appliance handles.
4. Your Refrigerator’s Drawers and Shelves
There are now smart refrigerators that allow you to press a button on the door handle, grab an item in the right door and keep the rest of the fridge closed. However, no matter how smart your refrigerator can be, it cannot clean its interior shelves and drawers…yet. These places are usually very dirty, containing all sorts of potentially harmful bacteria. According to a research by the National Sanitation Foundation, the four most common bacteria found in refrigerator compartments are mold, yeast, listeria, and salmonella.
They even found the E. Coli bacteria on meat drawers.
5. Small Kitchen Gadgets and Appliances
In an electric can opener, the circular ring that cuts open the can usually contain grime which builds up over time especially when you rarely clean it.
The inaccessibility of some parts of the cutting ring and its surrounding areas make the electric can opener difficult to clean.
6. Fruits and Vegetables
The rate at which prepared fruit salad are contaminated is very high. For example, the tracer bacteria are the most common bacteria found in a fruit salad.
When your fruits and vegetables have bacteria, it can lead to diarrhea, vomiting and nausea.
7. Cloth Towels
The most frequently contaminated items in the kitchen are cloth towels and sponges.
Any cloth towel you use in the kitchen is already contaminated. So, when you use the towel to dry your hands after washing your hands, you are re-contaminating yourself.
Despite washing and rinsing your clothes, research has shown that salmonella (a bacteria) grows on cloths stored overnight.
However, paper towels have proven to be a simple and effective solution to prevent re-contamination.
Conclusion
Pay attention to the areas mentioned above when cleaning and when you clean them, clean them thoroughly. Bear in mind that a bleach or antibacterial cleaner will be more effective for spraying behind your appliance handles.
I’m a 20-something stay-at-home mother and wife. I have an amazing husband, a beautiful daughter, two loving dogs, and a lazy cat. I wouldn’t change my life for anything! I love to read, listen to music, cook and blog!
Speak Your Mind