How clean is your towel? The answer depends on how often you use and wash the towel. Forty-nine percent of the kitchen towels collected for the study were laden with bacteria, and the bacterial count increased with the number of family members and kids, researchers from the Indian Ocean island/nation of Mauritius reported.

“Cross-contamination is happening in the kitchen, and those bacteria could reach our food and cause food poisoning,” said lead researcher Susheela Biranjia-Hurdoyal. She is a senior lecturer in the department of health at the University of Mauritius.



Specifically, the researchers found that towels used for a variety of tasks — such as wiping utensils, drying hands, holding hot utensils or cleaning surfaces — had more bacteria than towels used for one task. In addition, damp towels had more bacteria than dry ones, the investigators found.

Of the 49 samples that were infested with bacteria, 37 percent had Escherichia coli ( E. coli ), 37 percent had Enterococcus , and 14 percent were infected with
Staphylococcus aureus ( S. aureus ).

For the study, Biranjia-Hurdoyal and her colleagues sampled 100 kitchen towels that had been used for one month. They classified the types of bacteria on the towels and also how much bacteria was present.
Higher rates of S. aureus were found among low-income families and those with children, the findings showed


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