The Germ Bomb That's Lurking In Your Kitchen

Surprise! It's not your sink faucet or doorknob (though they're gross, too). It's your hand towel, and it's teeming with major germs that could make you sick—like, salmonella-sick. That's what food safety researchers at Kansas State University found when they watched videos of people prepping recipes in a test kitchen.

In their findings, published in the journal Food Protection Trends, the tool we associate with cleaning quickly became a leading cause of dangerous cross-contamination. The videos showed people handling kitchen towels with dirty hands and after splash-and-dash washing jobs, and also drying well-cleaned hands with the same contaminated towels. People also checked their phones while cooking, likely transferring germs from everywhere they've been, including the bathroom (where microorganisms such as norovirus and E. coli commonly dwell), to the towel and ultimately, their food.

"Probably the most surprising things we saw were lack of hand washing and how people consistently overhandled towels—even wiping the counter with them," says lead study author Jeannie Sneed, PhD, Kansas State University food safety specialist. "Towels were the most contaminated of all the contact surfaces we tested."  Read More at The Germ Bomb

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