Food can spread dangerous microbes, and if you want to protect yourself from illness, you should clean your kitchen surfaces. However, such a task takes time and usually requires chemicals. Many people are worried about excessive cleaningnatural bacterial floracan harm. This contributes to human health. Therefore, scientists recently conducted research focusing on when people from several European countries clean their kitchen surfaces.
When should people clean kitchen surfaces
Kitchen countertops that appear clean can actually lead to infections from pathogenic bacteria. Researchers found that most consumers clean their kitchen counters and cutting boards immediately after preparing food. Such a measure is always preventive to remove pathogens from raw meat or dirty vegetables. However, removing all bacteria is not the main goal. So the scientists wanted to find out whether spilled food, which usually contains dangerous bacteria, is visible on kitchen surfaces. Three different types of food spills such as chicken, eggs and lettuce in varying concentrations were applied to countertops and cutting boards by consumers. The study participants reported how visible such food contamination was. Less than half of consumers could visually identify levels of spills that may contain enough dangerous bacteria to make them sick.
Harmful bacteria can be absorbed directly through the hands or through transfer to other foods. These are typically found on kitchen surfaces and are not cooked. These would be bread or fruit, for example. Another crucial factor is what material the kitchen surface is made of andhow easy the kitchen is to maintain. It was found that it was easier to detect food spills on laminated surfaces. The three types of food spills were chosen because they may contain the pathogenic bacteria Campylobacter and Salmonella. However, it is also worth noting that there are large differences in the prevalence of these bacteria between different European countries. To study the survival of the pathogenic bacteria Campylobacter and Salmonella, the scientists mixed them into the spilled food and water. They then allowed the bacteria to dry out on a surface.
Study results
Bacteria on clean surfaces die fairly quickly, but survive longer if they are in a food spill. In addition, the scientists found that pathogens such as Salmonella lasted longer than Campylobacter. The highest risk occurs immediately after food spills. The best way to reduce the risk of infection is to clean up immediately after handling raw meat. The results suggest that keeping things visibly clean isn't enough to protect yourself and others from bacterial infections. So the scientists wanted to find out how many people clean their kitchen surfaces and routinely tidy up immediately after preparing food. Almost 10,000 people from ten European countries took part in the survey. These countries were Denmark, France, Greece, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Great Britain, Germany and Hungary.
There are several reasons why people clean their kitchen surfaces. There can be social and cultural reasons. An average of 73% of European consumers say they clean their kitchen counters and cutting boards immediately after use. The second most common time to clean kitchen surfaces is right before you start preparing food. The European average for Norwegians is 53%. At the bottom is Spain with 42%, while 62% in Romania clean kitchen counter surfaces before starting to prepare food. So it's these people who benefit the most from developing new habits. Therefore the topic is afterthis studyso important because pathogenic bacteria are not visible to the naked eye.