Commercial restaurant workers often use sponges and microfiber towels to clean food contact surfaces, but these types of absorbent materials were found to harbour potentially pathogenic organisms for more than 2 weeks, researchers said.
“The hypothesis of our study was that cleaning tools such as sponges and wiping cloths may become contaminated with bacterial pathogens and cross-contaminate other surfaces over time,” Sujata A. Sirsat, PhD, an assistant professor at the Conrad N. Hilton College of Hotel and Restaurant Management at the University of Houston, told Healio. “There is some literature about this in the domestic kitchen context; however, there is a paucity of literature in food service settings.”
FoodWorld 