Why you should never use liquid soap on a chopping board if you don't want to get ill

We use them to prepare a whole host of food products - raw meat, vegetables, herbs, raw fish - making chopping boards an integral part of any kitchen.

With this in mind, it's easy to see why the hygiene levels of chopping boards have been widely researched.

Once reported to have been found to harbour 200 per cent more faecal bacteria than the average toilet seat, they're the sort of utensil you really do want to clean thoroughly. Most of us will wash our chopping boards in the same way we wash everything else - hot, soapy water and plenty of washing up liquid.

This is a huge mistake.

While washing up liquid works well on nearly everything else, it does nothing for chopping boards. 

Sarah from Expert Home Tips explains that it can't penetrate the cold surface of a chopping board and give it the rigorous clean it needs. Meaning harmful bacteria can linger on to your chopping board and make you ill. Instead, you should be using something a lot stronger.

Sarah advised, "Soaking chopping boards in bleach after every use will ensure they are properly sterile, thus preventing any risk of bacteria transfer."

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Sarah also warned against making your bed with the covers pulled over (it traps dust mites and encourages germs to breed) and told us to dampen the cloths we use to polish with.