Scientists discovered four mistakes we could be making in our kitchen that could be making us sick.

1. Washing your raw meat – Who hasn’t rinsed their raw meat off before, especially chicken? Well, stop it. It’s actually increasing your chance of getting sick. When the faucet water hits your meat, it splashes juices all over your counters, then you end up with nastiness like e. coli and salmonella.
2. Leaving leftovers out too long – Let’s be honest, who hasn’t left a pizza out all night on the counter and reached for a slice the next morning? I mean, hey, we’re still alive, right… The general rule of thumb is to not let anything sit out for more than two hours. After that, there’s enough bacteria to make you sick. So next time you’re at a cookout, munching on food from the buffet table and find you’re still reaching for those same items 3 hours later, take a second to realize just how long the food has been sitting out. Unless you like to live dangerously…
3. Owning only ONE cutting board – Aim to have a minimum of two cutting boards, one for raw meat and another for everything else. Also, the one fore raw meat should be plastic instead of wood. (Side note: quickest way to sanitize a cutting board is mixing 1 tablespoon unscented bleach with 1 gallon of water into a spray bottle).
4. Keeping that sponge around for way too long – Sponges should be replaced every two weeks. Many think tossing it in the dishwasher or the microwave will kill the bacteria, and it does, but not all of it.

BONUS: Have you been taught to let hot foods cool down before putting them in your fridge, especially a giant hot turkey (think Thanksgiving)? It’s a MYTH! Back in the day (like, 40-50 years ago) refrigerators weren’t as good as they are now. They had trouble staying cold with a big hot turkey in there, causing milk, eggs, and other items to spoil. Fridges are clearly a lot better now, so just get everything in there as soon as possible.