It goes without saying that your kitchen surfaces and cookware should be well cleaned and sanitized before any food processing takes place. That’s because maintaining proper hygiene of your kitchen counters (and other food contact surfaces) helps prevent food poisoning and other food-related diseases.

As one of the busier areas in most homes, the kitchen can get pretty messy really fast. If you like to cook, you’ve probably already seen it all: sticky food residue, spills dripping down your kitchen cabinets, stains, dirty dishes, smears on your beautiful stainless steel appliances, and fingerprints all over your freshly cleaned refrigerator. Not to mention the mysterious unpleasant smells permeating your kitchen.

The finest Kingwood house cleaning services would have their hands full getting rid of those. But there is hardly a cleaning challenge you won’t be able to handle when you equip the latest expert tips and tricks. 

How do you disinfect food preparation surfaces?

First off, make sure that the surface you’re about to disinfect was previously thoroughly cleaned. Just as common cleaners don’t really disinfect (kill the germs), disinfectants don’t really clean (remove germs physically from the surface). And nobody likes to think about nasty bacteria smeared all over their kitchen counters, even if they are dead. 

Cleaning with natural, eco-friendly cleaning products works wonders, while keeping your home safe and healthy. However, when it comes to disinfection, strictly natural is not always the way to go. It’s important to find a balance between maintaining a non-toxic living environment and efficiently eliminating potentially harmful microbes. This way you’ll ensure neither your space, nor your food get contaminated.

So how do you disinfect your kitchen countertops? We’d suggest using a disinfectant especially made for food preparation surfaces, or a gentler bleach solution, as advised by experts at the CDC. 

Home-made disinfectant

You can make your own bleach solution for disinfecting purposes: simply dilute ¼ cup household bleach (5-6%) with 2 ¼ cups water.

That being said, you’ll find that DIY recipes differ somewhat in regards to bleach to water ratio, depending on the surface being treated. Feel free to use the above ratio when disinfecting countertops, and remember to allow for it to air dry after you’re done. 

What should you use to sanitize a food contact surface?

Any surface that touches your food — table & tableware, countertops, kitchen tools and appliances included — requires special care when it comes to cleaning and sanitizing.

If your kitchen countertops are made of a smooth, nonporous material, you’re in luck! These types of materials are naturally more easily cleaned and sanitized. Clean your kitchen regularly to prevent a germ-protecting biofilm from forming. This will help sanitizers do a better job too.

Whichever sanitizer you choose it’s fine as long as the manufacturer and EPA confirmed it can be used with food. Needless to say, any of the sanitizers used on a food contact surface should be long evaporated once you start preparing food.

As for the trickier material surfaces, we’d recommend using a sanitizer that was designed for that specific surface. Make sure to read and follow the manufacturer’s instructions to stay safe and get the best results.

Germs flee before the experts on Kingwood house cleaning services 

Are you overworked, overwhelmed and exhausted? Does taking the time out of your busy schedule to clean seem downright impossible? One call to That’s Clean Maids and you could finally take a proper break.

Sunny April days are practically begging for a nice stroll at the People’s Park, wouldn’t you agree? Feel free to bask in the sun to your heart’s content — the capable professional cleaners we match you with will take care of cleaning and sanitizing for you.

Book today!