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3rd August 2017
09:05am BST
This is something I've known to be true for years.
And while my housemates re-purchase and re-use these household items within an inch of their life, I refuse to even look at them, let alone touch 'em.
'Cos they're freakin' disgusting.
That's right - we're talking about your generic, bacteria-ridden, filthy, yellow kitchen sponge.
And if you're smugly thinking something along the lines of "oh listen to this eejit who doesn't know you can clean kitchen sponges"...
Let me stop you right there.
Because according to an article by Metro, the sponges that have attempted to be 'cleaned', are just as dirty than those that've never been cleaned before.
Yup.
A study by Scientific Reports shows that regularly 'cleaned' sponges, those that've been placed in boiling water, the dishwasher or microwave, are in fact no cleaner that sponges that've never, ever been cleaned. Sponges that have just been left to fester (ew, what a word) in their own dirt.
The study revealed that the sponges were filled with Gammaproteobacteria, a bacteria which includes pathogens that can lead to food poisoning, cholera, and even the plague.
Christ.
The porous nature of sponges make them the perfect place to incubate microorganisms, meaning that a sugar-cube sized piece of the most bacteria-dense part of a sponge contains 54 billion bacterial cells.
Ew.
Their advice?
Give up trying to clean your sponges, and simply replace 'em on a weekly basis.
Fair.
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