Dangerous Bacteria in Spice Containers
Your pantry may be harboring pathogens.
When preparing meals, people can spread bacteria from raw meats to kitchen counters, cutting boards, household appliances and other foods like vegetables. The potential consequence: a case of food poisoning! Now, a new study has found a surprising risk for cross-contamination: bacteria in spice containers.
In an investigation commissioned by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service and published in the Journal of Food Protection, 371 participants cooked the same turkey-based meal in different sized kitchens. Each person prepared identical meals, using raw ground turkey patties, a seasoning recipe and a prepackaged salad. After the meal was prepared, researchers found that nearly half of the spice containers in the cooking experiment had been contaminated with a pathogen. This was a higher rate than the amount of germs participants spread to cutting boards, sink faucets and trash can lids during the study.
You’ll want to be conscious about keeping spice containers a fair distance away from where you are handling raw meat and wash your hands to avoid bacteria in spice containers.
See also: Making Leafy Greens Safer to Eat
Matthew Kadey, MS, RD
Matthew Kadey, MS, RD, is a James Beard Award–winning food journalist, dietitian and author of the cookbook Rocket Fuel: Power-Packed Food for Sport + Adventure (VeloPress 2016). He has written for dozens of magazines, including Runner’s World, Men’s Health, Shape, Men’s Fitness and Muscle and Fitness.
