50,000 billion bacteria in ... dishwashing pieces

Although it cannot be seen with the naked eye, the kitchen dishwasher is home to countless bacteria, including those that can cause serious illnesses such as pneumonia or meningitis.

The startling information has just been published by scientists in a recent study in Scientific Reports.

One of the bacteria present in the dishwasher is Moraxella osloensis that can cause illness in people with weak immune systems. They are also the "culprit" of the smell of our clothes, and are the offensive odor of dishwashing pads.

A simple way to limit the large number of bacteria in dishwashing pads is to actively change new pieces weekly - (Photo: iStockphoto).

Scientists came to this conclusion after studying 14 used kitchen dishwashing pieces in terms of DNA molecules.

The most unexpected thing is that even housewives who wash with boiling water or microwaves cannot kill all the bacteria in the dishwasher. Not only that, but often disinfected pieces have a higher rate of pathogenic bacteria than untreated pieces.

According to the research team, this may be due to the pathogenic bacteria being able to counteract the effects of regular washing and quickly 'invade' back to cleaned areas - just like what happens in Our intestines after treatment with antibiotics.

When the researchers took these dishwashing pieces observed under a microscope, they found that each centimeter contained 50,000 billion bacteria, more than 7 times the number of people living on Earth! Scientists believe that such a large number of bacteria are usually found only in feces.

However, scientists advise families not to worry too much. By having an extremely simple solution for housewives: replace the dishwasher weekly.