Time to give dish sponges the brush-off?

IF yOU normally use a sponge to wash the dishes and leave it by the sink to dry – then it might be time to come clean.

A sponge harbours potentially harmful bacteria for twice as long as a dish-washing brush, a study has found. Even after squeezing it out, it is still a moist environment where germs can thrive.

Brushes, thought to be used by only 29 per cent of Britons, dry more quickly so bacteria on them die faster. Researchers put salmonella and campylobacter bacteria on different surfaces.

Salmonella lasted seven days on two out of three sponge types, but died within three days on a brush hung up to dry. Campylobacter survived on a sponge for a day but disappeared from a brush. The study looked at the dish-washing habits of almost 10,000 people in Europe. It found 12 per cent of Britons hung sponges up but two-thirds kept them by the sink.

The study by the Norwegian Institute of Food, Fisheries and Aquaculture Research was in the International Journal of Food Microbiology. Lead author Dr Trond Moretro said: you will not smell the harmful bacteria that are present in lower numbers, thus it is not safe to change sponges only when they smell bad.’