Kitchen Hygiene: Are You Safe?

There are harmful bacteria lurking in your kitchen.

How do I know that? Well, because that's what they do and you can never eliminate them completely. The trick is to control them.

You see, that shiny stainless steel surface may look like a sterile surface to you, but to a microbe it's a landscape of mountains and valleys with plenty of dark corners to hide in.

Of course a single bug is harmless and it will remain dormant until the conditions are right for it to get active. All that takes is the provision of a microscopic particle of
moist food and normal room temperature. It will then neatly divide itself in two. These two bugs will then continue to multiply in number until the food and drink runs out - a bit like a teenagers party.

They are so good at this that, given ideal conditions, one bug can turn into 4 million inside 8 hours.

You won't see them, you won't smell them and, if they get on your food, you won't taste them either. They will strike without warning and with no sign that they even exist.

How's that for the stuff of nightmares?

The disturbing fact is that most food poisoning occurs in the home, and it is often not recognized for what it is. After all, no-one wants to think that their kitchen is an
unhealthy place, or that there are germs hanging about in there.

Take heart, it's the same for everyone. There are more potentially dangerous germs in our kitchens than there ever are in our toilets. Fact.

That is why it is so important to practice safe food handling as well as cleanliness, which I know you are already scrupulous about.

For example, I'm sure you wash your tin opener in hot, soapy water each and every time you use it. Right?

You do? You're one in a million!

Can openers are one of the great sources of cross contamination. Fortunately the bugs on them tend to be of the less virulent variety.

That is not necessarily the case when it comes to tea towels, sponges, rubber gloves(!), chopping boards, drainage areas and vegetable storage racks, to name but a few of our food poisoning microbes favorite haunts.

In this series of articles I'm going to deal with the bugs most likely to exist, where they tend to be found, what kills them (and what does not), as well as how they travel around and how you can prevent that happening.

The point to bear in mind is that everything here applies to you, not to some stranger with unsavory habits. Bacteria are a fact of life. They are in the air we breath. These articles are intended to help you live alongside them in peace and harmony without encouraging them too much.

Yes, I know you'd rather eliminate them - so would I - but that's out of the question so let's start out by learning to live the enemy.

Know Your Enemy
There is a difference between germs, bacteria and viruses which is important to know if you are a medic or other professional, but is of no more than passing interest if all you want to do is avoid the lot of them.

So for convenience we’ll call them all bugs!

What is important, however, is to understand the nature of the enemies you face as well as when and how they can attack. Prepare to have some myths busted.