A clean slate

Preparing food on copper surfaces could prevent thousands of potentially
fatal cases of food poisoning each year. The stainless steel surfaces commonly
used in the food industry are pitted with microscopic scratches which can
harbour bacteria, says Bill Keevil of the University of Southampton. Research at
Southampton has shown that at 4 °C, the common bacterium E. coli
O157 can survive for 35 days on stainless steel, but lasts less than 14 hours on
copper. The fact that copper kills bacteria is nothing new. “Copper was used by
the ancient Egyptians thousands of years ago to transport water,” says
Keevil.…