Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Heavy-duty disinfecting the non-toxic way with hydrogen peroxide and vinegar

I found this post on Root Simple blog, which I read faithfully. I am always looking for new ways to clean better...naturally.
Color-enhanced scanning electron micrograph showing Salmonella typhimurium (red) invading cultured human cells
Credit: Rocky Mountain Laboratories, NIAID, NIH

Vinegar works for almost everything. That and plain castille soap. This recipe is for cleaning up chicken juice and anything else that could be deadly.

1) Take a bottle of hydrogen peroxide (3% solution, the kind you buy in the drugstore). Leave it in the brown bottle it comes in because hydrogen peroxide is light sensitive. Screw a spray bottle nozzle onto the brown bottle.

2) Fill another spray bottle with undiluted white vinegar.

3) Mist the surface you wish to disinfect with one spray bottle first, and then the other, immediately after, like a one-two punch. Do not combine the two liquids in one bottle for the sake of efficiency. That doesn't work. It makes a new chemical altogether which is not effective for this. Keep them separate. Always apply in the form of mist.

This methodology was developed in the mid-90's by Susan Sumner a food scientist at Virginia Polytechnic Institute. She actually developed this technique to remove salmonella from the surface of meat and vegetables. Yes, it can be applied directly to the food! I gather you rinse it off after application. It is said not to leave lingering flavors, but I haven't tried it.

This combo works like gangbusters at killing salmonella. Nothing else works better. The magic is in the mix, somehow. As Sumner told Science News Online,

"If the acetic acid got rid of 100 organisms, the hydrogen peroxide would get rid of 10,000, and the two together would get rid of 100,000."

This one-two punch spray is very effective at killing germs of all sorts wherever it meets them, not just on food, so you can use it in on your cutting boards, in the bathroom, in garbage cans...wherever you need the extra assurance. And it's so safe, it's edible.

So no more excuses for clinging to your bleach, people. Ditch the poison!

3 comments:

Jane and Chris said...

I also use 3% hydrogen peroxide in place of toner on my skin.
Jane x

Erin said...

Thanks for the tip Jane. I make my own skin care stuff, and sell some of it in my store. I had never heard of this. What does it do?

Jane and Chris said...

The 3% HP basically ,for want of a better word' disinfects the skin. My dentist also advises to apply 3% HP to inside my mouth if a flare up occurs...I have a hole in my gum where a tooth is trying to come through (and has been for 50 yrs!).
Jane x