YOU in the safety of your home, the last thing you expect to encounter is a deadly food-borne infection.
But it turns out, all sorts of bacteria lurk in your kitchen, meaning its pretty likely you can get sick from an area you regard as safe – and there are studies to prove this.
The dish towel you use to wipe your hands and kitchen could be teaming with deadly bacteria
The main germ sources? Your hands and uncooked fresh produce.
And the tea towel lurking on your counter tends to sop up a lot of what’s on these, in between drying your wet hands and wiping down kitchen implements and surfaces.
Writing in The Conversation, senior lecturer in clinical microbiology, at the University of Leicester, Primrose Freestone, said a number of studies analysing tea towels have found a host of illness-causing bacteria, which could leave you with more than just an upset stomach.
According to Primrose, the bacteria found in tea towels has been linked to:
respiratory tract infectionsskin infectionsurinary tract infections (UTIs)heart infections eye infections bone infections lung infections bladder infections brain infections blood infections pneumonia septic arthritis joint infections
Yep, it’s a long list.
Referring to studies which either sampled used tea towels or kitchen surfaces – often cleaned by the linen or cotton rags – Primrose discussed which bacteria could be lurking in your kitchen.
One study that sampled 100 used tea towels picked up the presence of staphylococcus aureus, often found on the skin but also a pathogen that can cause a variety of issues such as abscesses, joint infections and even pneumonia.
Meanwhile, Primrose said a study of 46 kitchens found Enterobacter bacteria on the surfaces – which can cause respiratory tract infections, skin infections, urinary tract infections and heart, bone and eye infections – and E.coli, often the culprit behind upset stomachs and urinary tract infections.
The researchers also picked up Klebsiella bacteria, which has been linked to serious infections of the lungs, bladder, brain and blood.
Several of the kitchens also had Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which can cause lung infections, and Bacillus subtilis, which can lead to eye infections and abscesses, was also found in more than half of the kitchens sampled.
And all of the samples from the kitchens were found to have Staphylococcus and Micrococcus. In people with weak immune systems, Micrococcus has been linked to lung infections, such as pneumonia and septic arthritis along with eye and heart infections.
Primrose wrote: “These studies suggest there is an infection risk from tea towels and that most kitchen cloths may be contaminated with high levels of bacteria. It’s easy, then, for these germs to transfer on to food preparation surfaces, potentially causing serious food poisoning.”
If you think about it, tea towels often tend to be damp or crumpled in a ball at the corner of your counter.
It’s this perpetual dampness that makes dishrags “such good microbial reservoirs”, according to Primrose, who noted that “water enables germs to grow”.
“And so a moist tea towel left in a warm kitchen provides an ideal environment for bacteria to multiply. This is particularly the case if food traces are present, too,” the microbiologist said.
How should I be cleaning my tea towels?
Primrose pointed out that laboratory experiments that involved covering tea towels in salmonella, found that the bacteria multiplied in all types of cloths that were crumpled.
But levels of bacteria were reduced by 1,000 times if the tea towels were hung to dry for 24 hours at room temperature.
So your first order of business is definitely hang up your dishcloths to dry, at least once a day or after each use.
The microbiologist also suggested using disposable cloths or paper towels for heavily contaminated areas, such as those involving raw meat, to help stop the spread of bacteria.
It’s best to wash your tea towels regularly – you can effectively sanitise them by popping them on a hot wash cycle of 90°C with laundry detergent – this’ll help reduce the bacteria levels on them.
If you wash tea towels by hand, make sure any obvious food and dirt are removed by rinsing in hot water with detergent.
After washing, you can sanitise any microbes remaining using boiling water or a disinfectant such as bleach, diluted following the manufacturer’s instructions.
Ironing tea towels on a hot setting will also effectively sanitise those dirty dish cloths, as the temperature is above 90°C.
Make sure you store your freshly laundered tea towels in a dry, clean area, away from any uncooked food and grubby hands, Primrose noted.