Replace sponges every few weeks. Keep raw meat, poultry, and fish and their juices away from other food. For instance, wash your hands, cutting board, and knife in hot soapy water after cutting up the chicken and before dicing salad ingredients. Use plastic cutting boards rather than wooden ones where bacteria can hide in grooves. Thaw food in the microwave or refrigerator, NOT on the kitchen counter.
Bacteria can grow in the outer layers of the food before the inside thaws.
Marinate in the refrigerator, too. It takes thorough cooking to kill harmful bacteria, so you're taking chances when you eat meat, poultry, fish, or eggs that are raw or only partly cooked. Rare and medium-rare steak, hamburger, and roast beef are also undercooked from a safety standpoint. Use a meat thermometer to check that it's cooked all the way through. Salmonella, a bacterium that causes food poisoning, can grow inside fresh, unbroken eggs.