Bread Machine Hygiene Question

[Ekim]

My bread making machine (Welbuilt) has a little ring around the bottom of the baking pan. I was cleaning it today and noticed a dark brown ring of crust inside that tiny little area.

I cannot clean it out even with a toothpick. I'm soaking it right now with baking soda & water.

The machine has me putting in the water first, so if there are germs in there, I'm probably getting them into the loaves.

What should I do? Should I worry about making myself sick or just forget about it?

 

[pacanis]

Do you mean that small area where the paddle attaches? It's about as big as a quarter? Regular warm water has always cleaned mine out, it's just baked dough and loosens right up. I can wipe it out with a paper towel, but then I've never let it go for long either. I think my machine does not recommend water in the pan for over twenty minutes, probably because it may affect the integrity of the seal that keeps water from leaking out.
And me personally, I wouldn't worry about germs any more than I would clean out the toaster everytime I used one. It's just baked dough and everything will heat up again to a high temp next time you use it.
If it's what I'm thinking about.

 

[Ekim]

Mine has a small nook or cranny that's very tiny circling that area. Like I said, I cannot even get a thin toothpick in there to scrape it out. And it's very dark brown. What little I could get out of it looked like fudge or something. It was a very tiny amount of crud in there, but it's still making me nervous.