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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Word 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.

From

cross-compound cross-contamination

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