HOW SAFE IS YOUR KITCHEN?

Foodborne diseases causes approximately 76 million illnesses, 325,000 hospitalizations, and 5,000 deaths a year in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The estimates vary because only a small percentage of cases are reported to public health officials. The 24 hour stomach bug most of us call the flu isn't influenza, which lasts a week or more, but is a mild food poisoning, usually from some common bacterium like salmonella. Bacteria that find their way into your food are responsible for cholera, botulism, and a dozen variations of diarrhea.
Disease-causing microbes are appearing in foods long considered safe and healthful such as eggs, lettuce, carrots..
These bacteria also appear on household surfaces. From there, they do harm by making their way into unrefrigerated food. Viruses work more directly. One to ten particles off a tabletop can start an infection. A person with a cold sneezes or touches a household surface and you in turn touch that surface before the virus dries out and dies - which can take five weeks in a humid climate. How quickly these microbes travel from one member of the family to another - in food or from touching some household surface, depends on home hygiene.
Kitchens are hot spots for opportunistic microbes. "You'd be better off eating a carrot stick that fell in your toilet than one that fell in your sink," said Charles Gerba, a University of Arizona microbiologist who measured germ levels in 15 well tended homes.
The big question is how safe is your kitchen?
Here are some few tips on how to maintain an hygienic kitchen environment:

(1)- Clean sink with disinfecting cleanser three times a week or fill sink with hot water and bleach. Wash sponges, dish cloths and other dish cleaning implements regularly Clean counters with bleach or commercial cleaning agent. Hot water and detergent may not kill all the bacteria.

(2)- Dirty dishes and utensils should be hand washed within two hours. Let them air dry to avoid contamination from dishcloths or hands...so for those lazy kids out there in order to keep a healthy kitchen always wash your dishes immediately

(3)- Don't leave food sitting out. Keep food out of the danger zone of 40ƒF-140ƒF. As soon as possible (within two hours) put cooked perishables in the refrigerator. Thaw meat in the refrigerator and not on the tabletop.

(4)- Avoid Cross contamination, cross contamination occurs, for example, when a knife used to cut up your meat, and the same knife is also used to slice raw vegetables or fruit for a salad. Or you wipe off the knife used to cut your meat and yam with a sponge and then was a dish with the same sponge. One out of three meats are contaminated with a newly evolved strain of salmonella called Salmonella enteritis. Cooking kills salmonella.

(5)- Be especially careful with ground beef. Sometimes, cows used to supply butchers with hamburger will harbor harmful bacteria, including E.coli and salmonella. Burgers should be cooked until no longer pink.

ACTIVITIES TO EXECUTE WHEN YOURE IN THE KITCHEN
(A) Hand Washing
It is normal to have microorganisms on our skin and in the air we breathe. Many are harmless under normal circumstances. Others are pathogenic, disease causing. Many are passed from person to person by a touch of the hand or from a contaminated surface to a clean one by the things we touch and move around. It is especially important to wash hands thoroughly prior to preparing food in order to reduce the risk of spreading pathogens from hands to food.

(B) Rubbing Is Necessary To Remove
Pathogens
It's the rubbing that really does it. Use soap and warm water with a rubbing motion for 20 seconds to clean hands. Don't forget your nails. Some scientists believe it is the rubbing rather than the antibacterial properties of some products that truly clean hands. In fact, some scientists speculate that use of antibacterial soaps in the home may simply cause the bacteria to mutate to a resistant form, and recommend soap and water rubbing rather than the use of antiseptic soaps. Whichever method you prefer, be sure to rub vigorously when you wash.

(C) Pets Are A Source Of Joy In The Home,
but they do not belong on the kitchen
counter or near food preparation surfaces, especially if they are outdoor pets. Always wash your hands before preparing food and especially after you've been playing with your pet.

(D) Leave The Dishes In The Sink ?
Don't give bacteria or other possible pathogens time to settle and multiply on your dishes after you finish eating. Hand-wash within two hours and let air-dry. Towels can move organisms from one plate to another. Kitchen towels should be changed every few days. Clean your sponges or washing cloths by hand or bleach or chlorine solution Clean refrigerator handles and the shelves with this solution.
Use it on your telephone, the can opener, on your counter tops, the sink and to clean garbage pails. Then discard the solution down the drain. It will disinfect the sink strainer on the way down.
(E) Spare The Salmonella
Today, one chicken in three contains Salmonella eneritis. It can cause diarrhea or severe disease and death. Disinfect the knife and the sponge used to clean the knife with the bleach solution or wash thoroughly prior to using them again. Do not use the sponge to wipe up the counter top without first disinfecting it. This spreads the Salmonella around.
So there we have it... Let's inculcate the habit of keeping a clean environment most especially out kitchen cos that's basis of our existence... Feeding and we should be watchful of where we eat, what we eat and live a healthy life... So help us God..