7 Common Kitchen Items That Are Crawling With Germs (And It’s Not Just the Sponge)

Even the Cleanest Kitchen Has Germs

When researchers from NSF International, a non-profit public health and safety organization, asked 20 families to swab 14 kitchen items, they found a few surprises contaminated with foodborne illness-causing germs such as E. coli, salmonella, listeria, mold and yeast. This is a health hazard that’s common in households across the country. Twenty-one percent of cases of foodborne illness are actually due to food consumed in private homes, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Here are some of the worst germ breeding grounds that are actually dirtier than a toilet seat!