Cleaning with Dirty Cloths is .. Dirtying !
Posted on Monday 20th September 2010
Research by the Health Protection Agency (HPA) presented at their annual conference on 15th September at the University of Warwick has revealed that over half the cleaning cloths used in restaurant and take-away kitchens were found to contain unsatisfactory levels of bacteria which are a sign of poor hygiene and cross contamination.
The team sampled 133 cloths, from 120 establishments in the North East of England, and found that 56 per cent contained unacceptable levels of bacteria. The most common of which were Enterobacteriaceae (found on 86 cloths) E. coli (21 cloths), Staphylococcus aureus (six cloths) and Listeria (five cloths). Pregnant women, are at particular risk of infection following exposure to low levels of listeria in food and it can lead to miscarriage.
Although the recommended advice for restaurants is to use disposable cloths that are changed regularly, the study found that only a third of the catering premises did. The remaining two thirds used re-usable cloths and 15 per cent were unsure as to how often these were replaced.
One of the most important factors in reducing the spread of bacteria around the kitchen is to separate cloths used for raw and ready-to-eat food areas but the research found that 24 cloths had been used between these two areas.
Dr John Piggott, the lead author from the HPA's Food, Water and Environmental Microbiology laboratory in Leeds said, ??.Although many
disinfected their cloths using bleach or other disinfectants, soaking does not remove the food on which the bacteria grow. The disinfectant qualities of bleach do wear off after a period of
time so soaking large amounts of cloths together can result in bacteria contaminating more cloths and creating more potential problems.?
Cloths used in kitchens need to be changed or disinfected frequently to stop bacteria growing which could cause food poisoning. Any breakdown in these procedures means that bacteria can be spread from the cloths to the hands of catering staff and then spread to work surfaces and equipment. Where kitchens prepare both raw and ready-to-eat foods, there should be separate cloths for both areas to reduce the risk of spread of bacteria.
