Dishwashing sponges and brushes: Consumer practices and bacterial growth and survival.

Dishwashing sponges and brushes: Consumer practices and bacterial growth and survival. Int J Food Microbiol. 2020 Oct 28;337:108928 Authors: Møretrø T, Moen B, Almli VL, Teixeira P, Ferreira VB, Åsli AW, Nilsen C, Langsrud S Abstract Sponges are frequently used in kitchens and have been shown to harbor large numbers of bacteria, occasionally also pathogens. Less is known about kitchen brushes regarding usage and presence of bacteria. In the present study, the use of sponges and brushes was studied in a survey among 9966 European consumers in ten countries, and growth and survival of bacteria in sponges and brushes were examined in laboratory experiments. Sponges were the preferred hand-cleaning utensils for washing-up in the majority of countries, while brushes were most frequently used in Denmark and Norway. Consumers mostly change their sponges at regular times, but also sensory cues (looks dirty, smelly, slimy) and usage occurrences such as wiping up meat juices may trigger replacement. Besides cleaning the dishes, over a quarter of the dish brush users also use it to clean a chopping board after soilage from chicken meat juices. The water uptake and drying rate varied considerably, both between different sponges and between brushes and sponges, where brushes dried fastest. Campylobacter survived one day in all sponges and Salmonella more than seven days in two of three types of sponges. In the type of sponge that dried slowest...
Source: International Journal of Food Microbiology - Category: Food Science Authors: Tags: Int J Food Microbiol Source Type: research