Clean the cutting board and counter that touched raw meat, but contamination can spread through the places your hands touch afterward: the faucet handle, refrigerator handle, cabinet door, spice jars, drawer, phone, and apron. These surfaces are often forgotten, so they are not wiped down. The solution is not just washing up; it is to plan the order of tasks in advance and reduce the number of places your hands need to go.
Cross-contamination brings to mind surfaces touched by raw meat: the cutting board, knife, counter, and plate. These are familiar and get cleaned. There is a second, less visible chain, and it is the dangerous one: the places your hands go after touching raw meat. The meat never touches those surfaces, so people do not think to clean them; yet they carry the same contamination, and hands continue to pass it around the kitchen for days. Because this chain is invisible, it does not break on its own; it must be broken deliberately.
The first link in the chain is the faucet. The faucet handle you reach for to wash your hands is touched with hands that have not yet been washed; when washing is done, you touch the same handle again and pick up the contamination. The second link is the refrigerator handle: a door opened to get an ingredient you forgot turns that handle into a surface everyone touches for the rest of the day. Then come cabinet doors, drawer handles, the oven handle, the trash-can lid, and the stove knobs. What these surfaces have in common is that everyone touches them repeatedly throughout the day.
The easiest links to miss are the salt shaker, spice jars, and oil bottle. While salting meat, you open a container with a raw-meat hand, then the bottle sits on the counter for days; the next day, you reach for the salad with the same hand. The phone is in the same group and is worse because it leaves the kitchen and travels around the home. Wiping your hand on an apron leaves the contamination on the fabric, and the apron then rubs against everything else. None of these surfaces is cooked or cleaned with heat. The same problem occurs on the salt-shaker lid, the neck of the oil bottle, and the handle of a grater.
The first half of the solution is washing your hands: after touching raw meat, wash them with soap for at least 20 seconds before reaching for anything else. The second half is planning the work order in advance, because washing every time is inconvenient and gets skipped. Leave the meat until last; prepare the vegetables and salad first. Measure the salt, spices, and oil ahead of time into a separate bowl, so there is no need to reach for bottles with raw-meat hands. If someone is helping, divide the tasks: one person handles the meat, while the other reaches for the refrigerator and bottles.
A few habits shorten the chain even further. Throw the meat packaging directly into the trash; do not leave it on the counter. If the trash can opens with a foot pedal, you do not need to touch it with your hands. Turn off the faucet with your elbow or the back of your wrist. When prep is finished, wipe the counter, faucet handle, cabinet handles, and stove knobs with hot, soapy water. A paper towel is better than a cloth for this task because it is thrown away after use and does not carry contamination to the next surface. Wipe everything down as soon as the meat leaves the counter, not at the end of all the prep.