Determination of hygienic conditions of sponges in home kitchens

Abstract

It is known that sponges remove the food residues from the utensils, sinks and equipment used at home kitchens. Porous kitchen sponges provide the perfect physical place for a bacterial community in this study, it was aimed to determine the hygienic conditions of sponges used in home kitchens in Manisa, Turkey. Samples were collected from 100 different addresses in Manisa city center. Results of the microbiological analysis showed that, the average total mesophilic aerobic bacteria count of samples was 6.42 log cfu/sponge, whereas total coliform and total yeast and mold counts of the samples were 1.63 log cfu/sponge and 2.12 log cfu/g respectively. Staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella spp. and Escherichia coli O157:H7 were not detected in any of the samples. The data obtained in this study supports the previous findings of other researchers that kitchen sponges provide a hospitable environment for microorganisms.