Do I have to use a paper towel to clean up or wash my hands?

That’s what food writer extraordinaire Kathleen Purvis of the Charlotte Observer asked me last week. Kathleen runs a regular column answering questions from readers, including one about risks associated with paper towel use (from chemical leeching). I told her I didn’t know a whole lot about that and couldn’t find much evidence to support the perception. We then talked about whether it was better to use a paper towel or cloth towel to clean and sanitize a kitchen, or to dry hands. I said it didn’t matter.

What matters is how the towel is handled after the act.

While some sources suggest it’s better to use disposable paper towels for kitchen spills, Chapman didn’t agree. When you wash your hands, he says, you really do three things: You loosen the bacteria with soap, you rinse some of it away with water, and then you deposit the remaining bacteria on what you use to dry your hands. In that example, it’s better to dry with a paper towel you throw away, so another person doesn’t use it.

However, for wiping up spilled meat juice or wiping a counter you’ve cleaned and sanitized, there’s no reason you can’t use a dish towel and then toss it in the washing machine.

Just make sure that you change dish towels often, possibly more than once a day (or as soon as you’ve cleaned up something risky like raw turkey juices -ben), and launder them in hot water.

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About Ben Chapman

Dr. Ben Chapman is a professor and food safety extension specialist at North Carolina State University. As a teenager, a Saturday afternoon viewing of the classic cable movie, Outbreak, sparked his interest in pathogens and public health. With the goal of less foodborne illness, his group designs, implements, and evaluates food safety strategies, messages, and media from farm-to-fork. Through reality-based research, Chapman investigates behaviors and creates interventions aimed at amateur and professional food handlers, managers, and organizational decision-makers; the gate keepers of safe food. Ben co-hosts a biweekly podcast called Food Safety Talk and tries to further engage folks online through Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and, maybe not surprisingly, Pinterest. Follow on Twitter @benjaminchapman.