The USDA believes that using a dishwasher or hand-washing dishes with hot, sudsy water ordinarily gives you all the protection you need against pathogens. Sanitizing offers added protection in certain circumstances. Effective sanitizing requires a germicidal agent that kills a broad spectrum of microorganisms. For home use on utensils and surfaces that touch food the USDA and FDA recommend regular household chlorine bleach. It kills a broad spectrum of bacteria, viruses and molds; it is fast, highly effective, and cheap; and it quickly breaks down into harmless components.

Read article: Avoiding Cross-Contamination

According to Cheryl Mendelson, author of Home Comforts: Home Comforts : The Art and Science of Keeping House, there are three basic steps to sanitize all hard food-contact surfaces and objects in the kitchen. Mendelson outlines three steps to sanitizing food-contact surfaces:

First: wash the surface carefully with hot, soapy water, making sure that no soil or food particles remain; then rinse thoroughly with plain, clean water. The first step is cleaning the object to be sanitized. She writes, “When you are sanitizing, cleaning comes first. Before sanitizing food-contact surfaces or objects, you must always first thoroughly wash them with sudsy hot water. Otherwise, the sanitizing may be ineffective. Remarkably more bacteria can live on a tiny crumb of meat or in a drop of sauce than on any wet or unsanitized countertop; the more food is present, the more bacteria. This is why the first and most important line of defense against pathogens in the kitchen is ordinary cleaning: getting rid of crumbs, bits of food, spills, and sticky or oily surfaces.

Home Comforts : The Art and Science of Keeping House

Second: if possible, immerse it in a sanitizing solution made up of one teaspoon of household chlorine bleach and one quart of water. Leave it in the solution for a few minutes. If it is something that cannot be immersed – for example a countertop – then flood it with the sanitizing solution, keeping it wet for a few minutes.

Household Sanitizing Solution:
1 teaspoon chlorine bleach to 1 quart water
1 tablespoon chlorine bleach to 1 gallon water

Third: take it out of the sanitizing solution and let it air dry, or pat it dry with clean paper towels. Do not rinse.

FDA Safe Food Chart: Meat, Poultry and Seafood

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