Washing Your Sponges

[Schneier]

Sometimes I dishwash sponges, but ususally I just throw them away.

[nanuq]

Cook's Illustrated did a test on this a while back. I don't remember all the specifics, but bottom line was that microwaving a sponge for 3 minutes did by far the best job at killing nasties. I always put the sponge in wet, and have managed to crack a bowl that the thing was in when it dried out too much, so now they go in all on their own

[elyse]

You know, I use my sponges pretty much until they fall apart, and I almost never wash them. I may sanitize them if the thing I am sanitizing needs a sponge with which to sanitize... the thing.

So what's the deal? Am I sick? Will I get cancer? What's going to happen to me if I continue this obvious insanity?

[Kim WB]

I love this thread. I loved it then, I love it now...continue.

Man, I miss Macrosan!

[mighty quinn]

sponges are yucky- i use the green scrubby things and dishcloths. put the dishcloths in the dish washer if i'm not doing a load of laundry. i wipe down all of my kitchen surfaces with chlorox wipes. use swiffer wets on the floor. anyone want to hear about my bathrooms? uh... ok ...probably not. but occaisionally i'll drive to d.c. just to see al dente clean HIS sponges. a sponge cleaning club maybe??

[slowday]

So what's the deal? Am I sick?  Will I get cancer?  What's going to happen to me if I continue this obvious insanity?

My wife had an uncle who was a bachelor his whole life and lived like a pig. He was a miser and wouldn't spend dime one on himself let alone a sponge. We would go up there and hold our breath as we cleaned his kitchen of moldy food he still intended to eat, grease on the countertop and pats of butter that came with his take out toast which he figured he would use in time. One of us would distract him and the other would blitz the kitchen throwing things out before he could protest.

And of course he lived to 97.

I have a friend who worked for the CCD and every once in a while he would drop helpful pieces of advice. One was to wear disposable gloves everytime we handled raw poultry; another was to avoid any kind of candy or mints in bowls by the register in restaurants. He never mentioned sponges.

slow

[elyse]

Are you saying you want to come throw out my sponges, moldy food, and butter?

[slowday]

Are you saying you want to come throw out my sponges, moldy food, and butter?

Absolutely...as soon as we finish dealing with my wife's maiden aunt who lives a lot neater but is only 94 so it may be a while before I can get over there.

slowday

[SobaAddict70]

Thought I'd bump this up for some Society n00bies.

So....do you?

I've started to fairly recently. And not just sponges, but also the brillo-sponge we use for washing dishes. Into the dishwasher they go...!

Soba

[fifi]

Having been a microbiologist in a previous life, I banished sponges from my kitchen a long time ago. I keep a 3M green scrubby thing, one of those plastic mesh scrubbers, and for a cloth I have recently acquired one of the new 3M microfiber jobbies, the other favorite is Handiwipes. None of these things remain wet long enough to grow a really nasty population and all go into the dishwasher with abandon. I also use numerous bar mops as dishtowels and after a cooking session, I run a washer load of them and the cleaning thingies with a healthy dose of chlorine bleach.

Sponges are nasty and the microfiber cloths and Handiwipes work better anyway.

[peppyre]

If I had a dishwasher, you bectcha! As it is right now, my sponges get washed in hot water, and then they get bleached when I bleach the sink. Haven't been sick yet.

[mdt]

Since many of the dishwashing liquids also contain an antibacterial do you really need to 'sterilize' in the dishwaher?

[Darcie B]

I microwave my Scotch Brite sponge just about daily for 3 minutes. Should be sufficient to kill germs, according to Cook's Illustrated. I also discard the sponge weekly.

Since we have cats who ignore our missives to keep their stinky paws and butts off our counters, before any culinary undertaking I use a Clorox wipe on the counters, refrigerator handles, range knobs and any other surface I intend to use. Perhaps I am creating resistant bacteria, but the thought of fecal coliform in my food outweighs that sentiment. After the surface dries, I follow up with a wet paper towel so the food doesn't taste like Clorox wipes (even though they are lemony-fresh!).

I agree that the sink harbors many nasties and I try to keep it scrubbed clean.

Anyone who has seen my spice drawer understands that I am AR and one friend said that he would be comfortable having surgery on my kitchen floor.

I have worked in restaurants and somehow ended up doing most of the cleaning each shift (hmmmm). I think I am just a little shy of obsessive, and I am getting better as years go by (I no longer mop the floor every night).

[fifi]

Again, from a microbiologist's point of view, I really don't think that the antibacterial compound that is being put into everything is a good idea. The compound is Triclosan, whatever that is. It is supposed to dissrupt cell wall development and the bugs can't develop populations that are immune. I don't believe it. The buggers have been able to outsmart us at every turn. Also, you run the risk of upsetting the balance of natural populations. I recall falling into that trap when the various antibacterial shower gels came out. Well, I was using that and I ended up with some rather nasty yeast infections until I figured out what was going on. I quit doing that and all is well.

There is enough concern about the proliferation about the "antibacterials" that there have been studies done that say that you should just stick with good old soap and hot water. Oh . . . and get rid of sponges. Structurally they are just a bad idea and the alternatives work just as well.

[jgm]

I go with the research that Cook's did, and from time to time throw my sponges in the microwave for 1 minute. Cook's did follow up later, and indicate that the 1-minute thing is for WET sponges only; dry sponges could catch fire.

I've been known to do the same with wet dishrags, especially if I've used them to mop up after working with raw poultry.

I do scrub my sink with Comet with bleach before putting foods into it that I intend to eat raw, or I use Clorox Cleanup or just run a sinkful of water and pour bleach into it. I have a porcelain sink and the bleach also removes many stains.

I spoke with a county health official a few years ago; Kansas had a nasty outbreak of hantavirus, which can be caught simply by inhaling, and which is carried by certain breeds of mice. I wouldn't want to be held to this, but it seems that over a span of about 3 years, about a half dozen people died from it. It was a cold winter, and my cats were catching mice like crazy, and I became pretty paranoid. The health official told me that dish soap and/or heat will kill most bacteria, but only bleach will kill viruses. I don't remember if he said that heat will also; I was more concerned with the surfaces of my counters.

And finally, from my days in the local Coroner's office: we washed all cloth items in hot water with laundry detergent and bleach. Bleach is potent stuff. Even a couple of tablespoons in a load of laundry will kill a virus.

I think I function out of paranoia on these issues, more than anything else. If people don't like my cooking, who cares. But if my cooking ever made anyone sick --or worse-- in addition to all of the other embarrassment/mortification/grief issues, it would seriously diminish the joy I find in cooking.

[Darcie B]

I'm not sure the compound in Clorox wipes is Triclosan, but I know it isn't bleach. Of course, their website doesn't say what it is. It does tell you that your desk has 400 times more bacteria than your toilet seat, though. I thought it was different than Triclosan, but I better check to be sure.

My husband likes antibacterial soap, and to humor him I bought some. I leave a small bottle under the sink but don't tell him I have been using a different bottle to fill up the soap dispenser.

I do keep an alcohol-based hand sanitizer to use after I thoroughly wash my hands after cleaning out the litter boxes. Do you think an alcohol based sanitizer is a no-no too?n How about bleach?

Can't....give....up.....sponges....

[Rehovot]

I started nuking sponges with a bit of soap and water. Since the first one, which emerged from the microwave with a scorch mark in the middle, I've honed the technique.

But does this really get rid of the microbes? We don't have a dishwasher, so I figured this was the next best thing. Maybe I read about it somewhere....

[fifi]

I think the alcohol based hand sanitizers are probably a good idea. They work mainly by dehydration which is a physical process rather than a biological process. We used to use alcohol to sanitize the lab benches when I worked at FDA. Clorine bleach is a similar thing.

I guess that my point is that, yes, you can sanitize sponges in the microwave or whatever. But, you have to go to a lot of effort to get it right because of their structure. A Handiwipe or microfiber cloth is a lot easier to deal with and does a better job of wiping up, is easier to rinse out, so why deal with sponges in the kitchen in the first place?

[slbunge]

Again, from a microbiologist's point of view, I really don't think that the antibacterial compound that is being put into everything is a good idea. The compound is Triclosan, whatever that is. It is supposed to dissrupt cell wall development and the bugs can't develop populations that are immune. I don't believe it. The buggers have been able to outsmart us at every turn. Also, you run the risk of upsetting the balance of natural populations. I recall falling into that trap when the various antibacterial shower gels came out. Well, I was using that and I ended up with some rather nasty yeast infections until I figured out what was going on. I quit doing that and all is well.

There is enough concern about the proliferation about the "antibacterials" that there have been studies done that say that you should just stick with good old soap and hot water. Oh . . . and get rid of sponges. Structurally they are just a bad idea and the alternatives work just as well.

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Hear hear.

Please don't purchase anti-bacterials for general purpose use. There is a danger in casting such a wide net and essentially encouraging the little buggers to come up with a different plan for survival. It promotes resistant-strain development which is a danger to us all. If you have cut your hand, by all means, apply an anti-bacterial after washing with anti-bacterial soap. But cleaning the counter, washing the dishes, or routine washing of your hands? Regular soap and water is all you need to keep your kitchen clean and healthy.

[patti]

I've never been one for sponges, although the suggestion of putting them in the dishwasher is a good one, and if I used them, I'd do that. We use plastic scrubbers and dish rags/cloths. I hadn't thought of throwing the scrubbers in the dishwasher, but will give that a try. Sometimes I spray the scrubber with Clorox cleaner and then rinse it in very hot water. It looks clean, so I'm fooled enough by that.On the question of whether or not the washing machine gets hot enough to sterilize, what about the dryer? Does it get hot enough to kill any remaining bacteria?

I'm with those of you who object to the everyday use of antibacterial soap. I used it when my handicapped son was alive because I was handling dirty diapers on a daily basis (for 16 years), but now that I'm not, I don't. The problem is that antibacterial soap outnumbers regular liquid soap, and it's hard to find!

Edited January 11, 2005 by patti (log)

[bakerboy]

I swore i wouldn't bite on this thread, but i just had to. I do not put sponges in the dishwasher, the microwave, or boiling water. I put them in the trash can. There are very few things i DO put in the dishwasher given the base of dishwasher soap...lye, NaOH. It is VERY hard on things. No metal, no glassware, definately no knives. Microwaving or boiling sponges seems like it would only create a biological vacuum possibly making your sponge go smelly even quicker. All it takes is a soak in 140F-160F water and that will do the trick as far as bacteria are concerned. Boiling and microwaving really seems like overkill to me. Besides, my sponges never last that long anyway. They get more tore up than Ted Kennedy on St. Patricks day!! How long are we keeping these things around anyway. Dare i ask whats the longest one has ever kept a sponge?

[jgm]

All it takes is a soak in 140F-160F water and that will do the trick as far as bacteria are concerned.  Boiling and microwaving really seems like overkill to me.

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Unfortunately, bacteria aren't the only problem. Viruses can be present, also, and some of them are far more resilient and are not killed at 140-160 degrees.

I think this is a question that each household has to determine for itself. If you have children, or family members who are immune compromised, you may want to handle the situation differently than people who have, for example, only a couple of adults in the household.

Part of my decision to microwave my sponges and dishcloths, and to add bleach when I wash kitchen towels and cloths, stems from the fact that we have a large dog and four cats. The dog runs around in the back yard, and we live in an area in which wild animals abound. He comes into the house, tracking whatever onto our floors; said whatever is then potentially picked up by the cats. The cats aren't allowed on the kitchen counters, but we're not home 24/7, and I'm certain that when we're not there to supervise, they go wherever they please. The dog manages to steal and devour bread that we could swear is out of his reach, so we don't like to think about what he does when we're not home.

For us, better safe than sorry. Your situation may be entirely different.

[fifi]

I swore i wouldn't bite on this thread, but i just had to.  I do not put sponges in the dishwasher, the microwave, or boiling water.  I put them in the trash can.  There are very few things i DO put in the dishwasher given the base of dishwasher soap...lye, NaOH.  It is VERY hard on things.  No metal, no glassware, definately no knives.  Microwaving or boiling sponges seems like it would only create a biological vacuum possibly making your sponge go smelly even quicker.  All it takes is a soak in 140F-160F water and that will do the trick as far as bacteria are concerned.  Boiling and microwaving really seems like overkill to me.  Besides, my sponges never last that long anyway.  They get more tore up than Ted Kennedy on St. Patricks day!!  How long are we keeping these things around anyway.  Dare i ask whats the longest one has ever kept a sponge?

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I hate to tell you this, but 140-160F water isn't going to do much. And there is no such thing as a biological vacuum being a problem in the case of a sponge. Once you use the sponge the first time, you are back in the soup. The environment of a sponge is too dependent on what you wiped up last to depend upon a benevolent bacterial population like exists in your gut or on your skin. It is just not the same thing at all.

On the time issue, bacteria multiply at a rate at room temperature that you would have to throw out your sponges daily, at least. The key advantage that the cloths, mes scrubbers and 3M thingies have is that they dry relatively quickly.

I am also not sure I understand your aversion to dishwasher detergent. With the exception of fine glassware, it all goes in the dishwasher in my house. The cheap glasses will get etched in a few years and I just throw them out. Metal won't be affected, with the possible exception of hard anodized aluminum like Calphalon. I have some stainless flatware that I have had for 30 years, in the dishwasher every week, looks fine. I have recently switched to the "Shine Shield" Cascade but I have no idea how that is supposed to work.

[DonRocks]

I'm a little surprised this thread has been around for so long and that nobody has asked The Authority.

[EdS]

I'm a little surprised this thread has been around for so long and that nobody has asked The Authority.

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He doesn't look healthy.