CROSS-CONTAMINATE Definition & Meaning

cross-contaminate

or cross con·tam·i·nate

[ kraws-kuhn-tam-uh-neyt, kros ]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

verb (used with object)

to transfer something bad or harmful, especially pathogens or allergens, to (a person or thing):
Wash the cutting board after using it for meat, or you may cross-contaminate your vegetables with bacteria from the meat.
to allow the unwanted mixture of minute amounts of one substance into another, as with laboratory specimens:
The lung secretions were left to sit too long before analysis, cross-contaminating the specimen with particles from the air.
to mix ideas, information, etc., in such a way as to compromise their integrity or reliability:
I don't want to cross-contaminate the data—I need the files generated for each day to stay separate.

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�y��vlog History and Origins

Origin of cross-contaminate¹

First recorded in 1965–70

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

Per the USDA, shopping for a turkey without cross-contaminating other food items is incredibly important.

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For instance, make sure no meat juices cross-contaminate other items, consider using a cool bag when transporting meat, and refrigerate or freeze the meat within two hours.

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However, even in the face of well-implemented strategies to disinfect facilities and control for microbial risks, microbes such as listeria can occasionally breach food safety barriers and cross-contaminate food products.

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As another imposingly dense mystery starts to unfold, with past and present horrors cross-contaminating one another alongside supernatural events, López sketches a vivid, menacing community that lives in darkness.

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He advises against “cross-contaminating utensils that you use in the kitchen—especially if you've chopped up raw chicken,” he says.

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