Are Your Dishes Clean?

Reported August 2007

COLUMBUS, Ohio (Ivanhoe Newswire) -- You’ve seen the restaurant reports -- health departments shut down hundreds of restaurants each week because they don’t meet health standards. E-coli and Salmonella outbreaks make customers sick -- dirty dishes could be to blame.

Restaurants clean plate after plate after plate… but just how clean are the plates you’re eating off of?

"You just can’t go on looks … you really have to have good techniques", said Melvin Pascall, Food Scientist at The Ohio State University.

The F-D-A recommends restaurants follow a three-step process when washing dishes -- scrub in soapy hot water at an uncomfortable 110 degrees Fahrenheit, rinse with clean water, and then soak in sanitizer.

Food scientists at The Ohio State University wanted to see if cooler water could still kill bacteria.

"Micro-organisms are smaller than our naked eyes can detect", Pascall said.

Milk and cheese provide a place for bacteria to grow, lipstick keeps bacteria from sticking.

"The thing is … you want to clean the utensil and make sure it’s free from bacteria … period", said Pascall

Dishes are not created equally -- compared to ceramic plates, steel knives, spoons, forks and plastic trays are prime growing spots for bacteria.

The study also found that even when dishes were washed in cooler temperatures, it still cleaned enough bacteria away to levels accepted in the food and drug administration's food code.

Although the study was aimed at restaurants, food scientists say to stay safe at home, wash your dishes right after using them, before the food dries and bacteria grows.

The American Society for Microbiology contributed to the information contained in the TV portion of this report.

Click here to Go Inside This Science or contact:

Pam Frost Gorder
Public Information
The Ohio State University
(614) 292-9475
Gorder.1@osu.edu

For more information about bacteria and cleanliness:

American Society for Microbiology
Washington, DC 20036-2904
(202) 737-3600
http://asm.org

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