New way to clean dishes

[tonado]

I discover today that my wife uses the microwave to disinfect bacteria on dishes prior to using them. I asked her why the plate was empty in the microwave and she said the plate was dirty from sitting in the rack. She worries about bacteria too much. Too clean is not good. We all need some good germs. I tried many times about having good germs but she won't listen.

[se_lang]

I guess you can forget mud wrestling.

[bnolsen]

I found a linkie on this a few months back (can't recall exactly where though).

 

A microwave only works on killing beasties in a limited fashion. It has to boil them to death.

 

Stuff microwaves work well on:

- Wooden cutting boards, slightly wet: 10 mins

- Sponge, nuke until dry

 

Both of the above materials retain water very well. Wooden cutting boards are actually safe even without nuking, washing with soap is fine. Apparently they naturally have "capillary action" which sucks bacteria inside the microholes in the wood. I'm not sure what would cause the bacteria to come back out, though.

 

For any dishes, glass, pyrex or plastic (especially cutting boards) she must use an automatic dishwasher to kill the bacteria. I think in the microwave the surface water evaporates too quickly to kill the beasties. Obviously here your dishwasher uses hot enough water to kill the beasties.

 

From what I read plastic cutting boards are absolutely the worst for cleanliness, bacteria especially love the knife scarring.

 

Based on what I read, what your wife does is pretty ineffective. She'd be better off boiling them in water before putting them on the table. Something's going to kill you at some point, and you have to do something to keep your immune system healthy.

Edited November 28, 2005 by bnolsen (see edit history)

[Guest ShaQuaNew]

Whether scientifically efficable or not, the Chinese have a great many cleaning rituals. One must approach changing these rituals carefully to avoid the mop slap. I wonder whether using hot tea to sterilize eating utensils actually will kill something that would make you sick. But, nevertheless, there are many that do this each and every time they eat in a restaurant. To me, the worlds best household disinfectant is bleach.....

[jbray]

My SO uses the water from making JiaoZi to clean the dishes. I could never figure out why. The water is so oily... She has a lot of cleaning rituals. I never heard about using the microwave though. That actually sounds a bit more logical then many others I have heard... When I was living in China, i used to see these things that looked like toaster ovens/microwaves that people would put dishes in to dry. I wonder if it was a microwave cleaning thing.

[se_lang]

My wife has issues with washing underwear and socks together, I am in the mind set that if it has been in the dish/clothes washer it is clean and safe to use.