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How to Clean a Sponge

Posted by on April 2nd, 2012

We use sponges every day to clean our dishes, and yet kitchen sponges often hold more bacteria than any item in your kitchen. Sponges stay wet most of the time, and are home to food borne pathogens, yeast and dangerous mold.

Two main methods of sponge cleaning are running your sponge through the dishwasher with the dishes, or microwaving the sponge itself. Other cleaning methods, such as soaking the sponge in a bleach and water mixture, or a lemon and water mixture, were tested by scientist and found to be ineffective.

Microwaving a sponge for one minute killed 99.99999 % of bacteria, and running the sponge through a dishwasher with a drying cycle killed 99.9998 % of bacteria. Microwaving and running sponges through the dishwasher also killed nearly all yeasts and molds living in the sponge.

It’s recommended to clean your kitchen sponges every day, or every other day to keep them clean.

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