Reusable Grocery Bags Breed Bacteria

[Roon]

DENVER -- They are good for the environment, but reusable grocery bags are also a breeding ground for bacteria.

Many responsible shoppers carefully choose their groceries and put them into the same cloth or plastic bags over and over again on every trip to the store.

“Did you ever wash your grocery bags?” asked Call7 Investigator Theresa Marchetta
http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/25181234/detail.html

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. I have.....not recently, though.

[Luminous Animal]

2. I wash my bags. I also reuse plastic vegetable bags.

[slackmaster]

10. I wash and re-use Ziplocs, and simply re-use the thin ones...

...for things like pet messes.

[closeupready]

3. They bag things with plastic - I re-use those only as a garbage liner.

n/t

[Speck Tater]

4. Even the things that are good for you are bad for you! nt

[maxsolomon]

5. what doesn't kill you makes you stronger

Call7 wants you to be afraid. be very very afraid of anything and everything.

[Orrex]

6. I never use my reusable grocery bag unless I'm buying bacteria, and lots of it.

[BlueJazz]

18. LOL!

[grahamhgreen]

7. Sounds like PR from the plastic bag companies...

[JuniperLea]

15. !

:thumbsup:

[Quantess]

8. Isn't nearly everything a breeding ground for bacteria?

Purses, kitchen sinks, carpets, telephones, doorknobs, toothbrushes ....etc

if you're really worried, just wash the things.

[slackmaster]

9. WWGPS?

[Roon]

13. That is so funny you posted gomer's pic

I was in my grandparents living room when I happened upon one of my favorite andy griffins episode. the one one where the deputized gomer is on watch on the court house roof with that basketful of christmas lights..lol...i sat down and watched the rest of it, something I never do.

[gratuitous]

11. And, if you wear the wrong underwear? It could, aaaaah, kill you.

It's true!

[Gold Metal Flake]

12. And so does the "crisper" drawer in your fridge.

So does your steering wheel. Your shower and toilet. Your metal coinage. Your car keys. Your Chapstick. Your shoes. Your counter top.

[JuniperLea]

16. And if your toothbrush isn't 10 ft from your toilet...

Guess what you're brushing your teeth with!

[Karenina]

19. OH, JUST CLOSE THE LID WHEN YOU FLUSH!

Amis be just so germphobic persnickety!!!

[JuniperLea]

22. I was a real freakazoid about it when my first kid was born...

Then I realized that if we aren't exposed to germs, we never develop immunity!

I'm not near as persnickety as I used to be:)

Love that word, BTW... thanks for using it!

[Matariki]

20. +1

OMG!!! Something else to be AFRAID of!!!!

[JuniperLea]

14. Wash them and hang them in the sunshine to dry...

Sunshine is the best germ killer ever!

[customerserviceguy]

17. As long as you use those clear plastic bags

provided at the meat counter, you should be OK.

[L0oniX]

21. Reusable hunter prostitutes also breed bacteria.

[xchrom]

23. Recommend - you do have to clean things that you use like that.

I prefer paper bags that then get shredded and put into the compost.

[Cleita]

24. When I lived in another country, we went to the

market every day with a wicker basket. We had to shop every day because back then it was after the war and there was no refrigeration. Also, what was available one day in perishables might not be available the next day. I remember the baskets being carefully washed and hung to dry until the next shopping excursion.

[TBF]

25. Only if you take all the food out of the packages

and dump it into the bags.

[slackmaster]

26. The external surfaces of food packages are often highly contaminated from handling

That's why the food is INSIDE the package.

Checkout counters are especially vulnerable to contamination. I recently saw a woman place her baby-stuff bag on the conveyor belt along with her groceries. Her bag was soaked with urine and probably more.

Another time I saw a child place a basket full of kittens on the conveyor belt. The kittens were teh cute of course, but the basket was soaked with kitty pee.

[TBF]

27. good point -

I'm going to be throwing bags in the laundry from now on.

[slackmaster]

30. That should take care of it

As long as you let them dry out thoroughly after washing.

[Hannah Bell]

28. I'M SO DAMN SCARRRRRED!

[surrealAmerican]

29. This is one reason why I prefer canvas bags ...

... to those reusable plastic or non-woven fabric kind. You can just toss them in with the rest of the laundry.