Monday How-To: Sponges
Monday, February 18, 2008
I have a friend, who shall go unnamed (but his name rhymes with “Backgammon”) who loathes sponges. He thinks they’re full of bacteria and festering germs, and that cleaning your dishes with them is essentially pushing thousands of unpleasant bacterias around your dishes.
Well, it turns out that my germaphobic friend was right and justified in his hatred of those horrid little sponges. An ordinary kitchen sponge is found to contain an estimated 10,000 bacteria per square inch, including E. Coli and Salmonella. 10,000. Per square inch. That’s disgusting.
But before you run to your kitchen and throw away every sponge in sight, there’s good news! There is a method of cleaning them that kills 99% of said bacteria. How, you ask? With the magical little appliance that is your microwave.
How to Clean Your Bacteria-Laden Sponge:
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Wet the sponge. Do not, I repeat, do not place a dry sponge in the microwave (don’t say I didn’t warn you).
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Microwave for at least one minute. Two is best. Microwaving for one minute significantly lowers bacteria counts and populations of mold and yeast. However, microwaving for two minutes, kills more than 99% of all the living bacteria. So really, go wild and splurge on that extra minute.
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Remove sponge. For obvious reasons, including risking some serious burns, cool sponge before using.
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Repeat every other day or so (And of course, to prove that I’m not making this stuff up, see the USDA page for more info).
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Happy Bacteria-Free Cleaning!
