How to Germ Proof Your Kitchen

Chances are there're a lot more germs growing in your kitchen and the rest of your house than you think. Your kitchen is a breeding ground for cold, influenza and stomach viruses, as well as the normal microbes that inhabit your skin and digestive tracts.

Even though you think you're a great housekeeper.

The most dangerous area is the kitchen. Yes, surprising as it seems, your kitchen probably has more germs than your bathroom -- where the worst of them are flushed away.

Your kitchen contains a huge number of surfaces. You and your family touch them, and spatter and spill food over counters and the table and onto the floor. You pick up utensils. You cut up and cook food that even if not contaminated also contains nutrition for germ growth.

Yes, you clean your kitchen. But few people practice sanitation as strictly as they could.

One problem is raw meat. Beef can contain E coli 0157 and poultry can contain Salmonella and Campylobacter.

It's highly unlikely in the U.S. or other developed countries that are watching their poultry flocks very carefully for signs of bird flu, that the chicken you buy in the store has H5N1 virus in it.

But if that should ever happen, these good sanitation habits will help protect you from it.

You should wash your hands WELL at every stage of meal preparation. That means before you start. After you cut up the vegetables. After you put the meat dish into the oven. Before you set the table. And then before you eat.

Every stage of handling and preparing food can possibly spread an infection to your skin. If you wash your hands between the handling of different foods, you reduce the risk that you'll introduce the new microbes into the next dish you're cooking.

This washing between foods also applies to utensils and cutting boards.

Never cut up chicken and then use the same surface and knife to cut up vegetables without washing them thoroughly with soap and hot water first.

And don't wipe food off your hands with your apron or a rag you should throw down, or your apron or rag will have lots of germs from food growing in it and you'll be transmitting them into what you're cooking.

And don't touch your face with your hands until they're thoroughly washed, or you could be introducing germs from the food into your own body.

Also, all meat and fish should be thoroughly cooked -- well done. Never serve any meat with any pink left in it. The heat of cooking kills a lot of microbes and parasites that could otherwise make you ill.

Of course, you need to keep your floor swept and mopped with disinfectant, and all counters and tables cleaned and disinfected. And all dishes and utensils washed well with hot water.

Any throw rugs or curtains in the kitchen should be washed regularly. Any rubber mats should be cleaned with water and bleach. Washclothes and sponges should be kept dry.