How to care for kitchen sponges to keep them clean

Kitchen sponges have to deal with a wide variety of contaminants - everything that settles on the surface of the sink. As a result, the sponge becomes one of the dirtiest objects in the house. A group of German scientists Microbiome analysis and confocal microscopy of used kitchen sponges reveal massive colonization by Acinetobacter, Moraxella and Chryseobacterium species. analyzed the bacterial environment of 14 kitchen sponges, some of which were regularly sanitized, while the rest were never disinfected.

Who lives on a sponge

The results of the study showed that even the cleanest sponges are inhabited by a huge number of microorganisms, including pathogenic ones. However, the percentage of potentially harmful bacteria on sponges that were cared for was much lower.

Every time we destroy most of the bacteria in their places of accumulation, we will not eliminate them once and for all. The bacterial population is recovering, but at the same time fluctuations in the species composition are possible: some bacteria may become more, others - less.

However, there is no reason for panic: even the most "dangerous" of these bacteria are actually quite harmless and do not pose a serious threat to the health of a person with normal immunity.

But this does not mean that sponges do not need regular cleansing.

How to return purity to sponges

The most popular way to make sponges clean is to machine wash them with powder and disinfectant.

In addition, researchers from Michigan State University Sanitizing kitchen sponges. recommend other effective methods of fighting bacteria.

Heating a damp sponge in the microwave for a minute at the highest power.
Washing the sponge in the dishwasher on the longest program at maximum heat and with the obligatory drying.
Soak in diluted chlorine bleach for a minute.

Since the composition of bacteria living on the sponge changes over time, it is worth periodically changing the kitchen sponge to a new one, and using the old one for washing plumbing or other household needs.