If you're thinking about what kind of material to use for your new kitchen benchtops, and hygiene is a really important factor for you, then you may have heard that stainless steel benchtops are a good choice. Why is stainless steel so good at dealing with germs in the kitchen?
Shrugging Off Germs and Bacteria
A stainless steel benchtop has some hygiene advantages that other kinds of benchtops just don't have – this is one of the reasons that commercial kitchens use this material so widely. For example, stainless steel isn't porous, so it won't suck up spills or liquids when you're cooking and accidentally spill something on a benchtop. Anything you spill on stainless steel will simply sit there on the surface until you clean it up.
Plus, the fact that spills sit rather than seep makes them easier to wipe off; this makes it a lot simpler to keep your benchtops clean. This also means that you can avoid cross-contaminating foods in the kitchen. Clean up a spill straight away, and there will be no trace of residue left to get on any other food that you might be preparing afterward.
Giving Bacteria Nowhere to Hide
Stainless steel benchtops tend to be installed in whole sheets rather than in smaller component parts. This means that you don't have any joins or gaps in your benchtop that need to be filled with stuff like grout, for example. Bacteria and germs can find a happy home in the joins and gaps between areas of a benchtop and are hard to clean out of grout effectively, but they but won't find anywhere to live on stainless steel sheets.
Providing Lasting Hygiene Protection
Stainless steel benchtops don't lose their hygienic properties over time. Even if this kind of benchtop gets scratched, it'll still keep germs at bay. While other benchtop materials that have been sealed are hygienic enough to start with, they may lose some of this protection over time if their sealants wear off and aren't replaced. Spills and food traces may seep into the materials, staining them and making them less sterile than they used to be.
To find out more about the hygiene benefits of using stainless steel benchtops in your kitchen, talk to your kitchen supplier. It may also be worth visiting a few showrooms to see just how good these benchtops can look in a home kitchen.
