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Scientists have found out where the most microbes and pathogens that can cause food poisoning accumulate in the kitchen. Surprisingly, this is not a sink, dish sponge or cutting board at all, and not even a wastebasket!
Cleaning up the kitchen after cooking and eating, housewives usually focus on dirty dishes and surfaces that food has come into contact with. The last place that most people pay attention to while cleaning the kitchen is the spice shelf. But it is she, as the study showed, that most often turns into a hotbed of harmful and potentially dangerous pathogens, transmits UK edition of Express.
From sauce-stained trash cans to kitchen sponges with leftover food, there are dozens of places in the kitchen that housewives are reluctant to touch. Shelf for spices, most likely, does not apply to them. Spices and seasonings packaged in glass jars or plastic containers are usually located in the immediate access area so that they can be quickly and conveniently taken during food preparation.
Meanwhile, a study published by the International Food Protection Association in the Journal of Food Protection found that spice racks are a “cause of the spread of disease” due to so-called cross-contamination. Cross-contamination is the transfer of microbes from one substance or object to another.
While other surfaces in the kitchen showed signs of soiling less than 20% of the time, spice jars were soiled almost 50% of the time.
“Our study shows that any spice container you touch when you cook raw meat can be cross-contaminated,” said study co-author Donald Schaffner.
That is why experts urge to remember the danger of cross-contamination during food preparation and pay closer attention, including shelves and containers in which spices are stored.
