Special news features like KSAT's Behind the Kitchen Door series show the work of sanitarians in the city’s restaurant kitchens, finding violations that could result in food-borne illness. 

KSAT asked them to come into an average kitchen and show how the average homeowner is doing in the fight to keep clean. 

The results were surprising, leaving homeowners like Dottie Cooper feeling the need to make some changes.

“We try to keep it clean as we can, but it’s definitely not always clean with three kids coming in and out,” said the Alamo Heights homeowner, of her newly remodeled kitchen.

Senior Sanitarian with the City of San Antonio Metropolitan Health District Lori Calzoncit started with the refrigerator, questioning the accuracy of the thermostat. 

She recommends you test your temperature against a second thermometer instead of trusted the one that is built into newer models. 

What’s inside the fridge is also in question.

“These strawberries don’t have to be heated for your kids to enjoy. And these leftovers are going to be warmed up, so we want to make sure that we don’t store raw meat above them,” she noted. 

She also recommended that Cooper discard the plastic bag holding the raw meat instead of recycling it since it may contains drips from the meat.

She recommends milk and eggs not be put in the door of the refrigerator where there are built in shelves, but rather in the back of the unit where the temperature will not vary.

Other areas of importance:

• Always have soap within easy reach of the sink so that you can wash your hands with hot water and soap without contaminating door handles, etc.

• Keep paper towels within easy reach as well to avoid reusing dirty dishtowels to dry your hands.

• Keep cereals, breads, pasta and rice in reclosable, airtight bags or containers to prevent spillage or insect contamination.

• Discard old cutting boards that show signs of peeling and deep cuts and purchase smooth plastic boards, preferably with color coding so that raw meat is not carved on the same board as vegetables.

• Clean countertops and cutting boards with a bleach mixture or a grocery store product like Clorox Cleanup, but remember not to rinse so that the bleaching action cleans thoroughly.

• Remove chemical cleaners and products like sterno from pantry shelves where they could leak or spill into food products.

Overall, Dottie Cooper’s kitchen got an A+ from the inspector.