Nuke those sponges!
MOST people, confronting a sponge soaked in a disgusting brew of raw sewage containing fecal bacteria, viruses, protozoan parasites and bacterial spores, would shriek, “Yuck!” Not so researchers at the University of Florida. They deliberately created the stinking concoction to answer a question: What’s the best way to decontaminate the filthy, pathogen-infested kitchen sponge, to be found in even the most sparkling, granite-countered kitchen?
Their finding: Zap the sponges in a microwave.
Study author and environmental engineering professor Gabriel Bitton said he’d long used the sponge-zapping method. “I decided I was really going to test it scientifically.”
His team found it took two minutes in a regular, off-the-shelf microwave to knock out more than 99% of the bacteria on filthy, wet sponges.
Common pathogens such as E. coli and salmonella cause at least 6 million cases of U.S. food-borne illnesses annually. The bugs survive well in damp sponges and cloths. Microwaving sponges and scrubbers about every other day for two minutes at full power will decontaminate them more effectively than putting them through a dishwasher cycle and greatly reduces the danger of food-borne illnesses, the researchers say. The item has to be completely wet and should not contain metal. And be careful when you remove the items. They’ll be very hot.
