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Do you know how often to clean your garbage disposal? What about the maximum amount of time you can safely leave leftovers on the counter? Read on for five kitchen safety tips most people don’t know.
Kitchen tip #1: Sharpen those knives! Dull knives are more likely to cause kitchen accidents. They’re less precise, which means they can slip or jolt at the wrong moment. Get your knives professionally sharpened every 3-4 months in order to keep them working at maximum efficiency.
There’s an art to putting away leftovers at the right time. First, check if your containers are BPA free. If they’re not labeled as such, then you should not put hot food in them (or microwave the plastic). While you might want to avoid dumping boiling-hot soup into a plastic container, you also shouldn’t let food sit out for more than two hours–max. That’s the limit the FDA recommends for safety.
Are you guilty of washing your chicken? It’s an old wives’ tale that you need to wash raw meat. All you’re doing is getting more surfaces contaminated. Any bacteria, such as Salmonella, that might be present in the meat will get killed off during sufficient cooking. If you rinse, your sink, faucet, and countertops could be covered in bacteria–and cross-contaminate the rest of your food and utensils.
Dish sponges are absolute nightmare factories. They store all kinds of bacteria and then spread it to the rest of your dishes, as well as your hands and every other surface in your kitchen. Run your sponges through the dishwasher or microwave them (damp) at least once a week in order to kill off the bad bugs. You can also soak the sponges for five minutes in a bleach solution. Even the best sponge won’t last more than a month, so keep replacing them on a regular basis.
Okay, let’s get one thing straight: Don’t ever put your hand in the disposal. These hungry maws full of blades and bacteria are dangerous even when turned off. If you drop something in there, use tongs to get it out. Also, keep a strainer in the drain until you need to get rid of food debris; that’ll keep utensils, bottle caps, and other metal pieces out of the danger zone.
You should also clean out your disposal regularly–think once a week–with a mix of equal parts baking soda and vinegar. Dump in the ingredients and then run cold water over it. It’ll bubble up and clean out any buildup. You can also throw in lemon rinds and turn on the device to give it a fresh, pleasant scent.
