Food Safety Tips: Hot Cleaning

A dishcloth or sponge can be effectively cleaned by placing the wet item in a microwave on high for three to four minutes. The heat will kill off bacteria and viruses. Be careful when removing from the microwave as it will be steaming hot.

Use separate sponges or cloths for the dishes, the bench and the floor. If you have different coloured cloths for different tasks it will be easier to distinguish what they are for. Some people use green for dishes (it rhymes with clean), blue for the bench (they both start with ‘b’) and yellow for the floor (when you wipe up spills, the light colour shows any dirt which reminds you to mop the floor). Preferably use paper towels for spills, especially wiping up meat juices and then wipe with a cloth and hot water and detergent.

Make sure you have two or three of each colour so when one’s in the wash, there’s a clean one ready to go.

Use separate chopping boards for raw and cooked meat, fish, vegetables and bread. Colour-coded boards make it easier to remember which ones to use for each type of food. White is still the best colour for visually spotting food debris. It is possible to get white plastic chopping boards that are colour-coded on the edge.