To help prevent the spread of germs, tea towels should be changed at least once a week, but preferably every few days. For best results, if possible, use your towels once and then throw them in the washing machine and buy a new one. The USDA recommends that tea towels be changed frequently, and a common recommendation is to change them daily. However, it depends on how often the towel is used and what it is used for in the kitchen.
For example, if a kitchen towel was used to wipe raw juices from meat, chicken or seafood, it should be immediately put on clothes and use a clean one. While tea towels are a major source of pathogens in your kitchen, there is an easy way to keep them insect-free. I recommend changing tea towels daily in the kitchen and family bathrooms, says Becky Rapinchuk, founder of Clean Mama and author of Simply Clean and The Organically Clean Home. Cloths that are used for larger kitchen clutter need to be changed more often.
One day is the recommended limit for rags that deal with dirty counters, cutting boards, plates and stoves. When a towel touches something particularly unpleasant, such as raw fish, eggs or meat residue, mix it in the basket the right way. A study by the American Society for Microbiology showed that half of the kitchen towels tested contained some form of bacterial growth, such as E. Now that you've learned how to remove unwanted organisms from your food space, don't forget to clean the 17 dirtiest and most disgusting things in your kitchen.
If you don't have time to wash your tea towels at the end of each day, consider buying more so you can take them out regularly. It doesn't matter if the fabric looks relatively dry and stain-free if a dishcloth has been hanging around the kitchen for a while, it's probably dirty. Wash the kitchen towels on the HOT cycle of the washing machine and make sure they dry completely at high temperature. Bacteria spread throughout the kitchen when that same towel is used to clean the countertops, kitchen table, and stove top.
The researchers collected 100 tea towels after a month of use and then cultivated and identified the bacteria present. But have you ever considered how many bacteria your tea towels harbor after all that daily wear and tear? Researchers at the University of Mauritius have studied the little bugs that hide in this kitchen staple and recently presented a study on their research at the annual meeting of the American Society for Microbiology. When you use dirty tea towels to clean your hands, dishes, or surfaces that touch the food you eat, you can expose yourself to harmful pathogens. Rapinchuk also warns that washing tea towels with clothes is a safe way to introduce bacteria.
A study of 82 towels collected from domestic kitchens found that 14 percent contained Salmonella and 25 percent contained E. Nearly half of all kitchen towels tested showed bacterial growth, and of 49 percent, 36.7 percent showed Enterococcus spp, 36.7 percent developed coliforms, and 14.3 percent developed coliforms, and 14.3 percent developed coliforms. percent had S. Biranjia-Hurdoyal, a senior lecturer in the Department of Health Sciences at the University of Mauritius, Mauritius, told Science Daily, referring to the possibility that kitchen towels could cause cross-contamination and thus cause food poisoning.
