What do shopping cleaners do with the insides of packets?

[Floatyboat]

Just wondering how people that like to clean their shopping deal with things inside the packaging.

Obviously you'd presume tins and cereal etc would not have been contaminated in the last 72 hours but what about other stuff, short shelf life items. Some fruit and veg can be from farm to fork in 48 hours. Bread as well won't have been in the bag for long.

Do you just leave it before opening, cook it all before eating or wash it? But you can't really wash bread.

This has also got me thinking about other things that may have recently touched in non obvious ways.

[Solina]

A lot of stuff inside packaging was never touched by a human. A lot of it is done by a machine and packaged by a machine so it is very very unlikely the inside will have the virus.

[Floatyboat]

@solina

True. What about fresh bread or some fruit though? Is it possible to tell from the label do you know?

[RhymingRabbit3]

Dunk your bread in dettol.

[Floatyboat]

Hilarious. Such wit rabbit.

[S4SQAExams2020]

I give tins and outer packets a wipe over with a wrung out cloth dipped in a very mild washing up liquid solution. So a soap solution but extremely mild. Then dry off before putting in the cupboards. Multipack items are taken out of the outer packaging and put away. Bread and other baked goods outer packaging is wiped over in the same way.
I don’t buy loose fruit or veg. They are just taken out of the packaging before putting in the fridge or bowl and washed before eating/cooking as usual.

I would not go near food with bleach and cannot understand people who are doing this. This is food! If you are that worried then just quarantine your shopping for 3 days and buy long life bread etc.

I feel I’m being careful without going too over the top or endangering everyone in the household with the possibility of bleach poisoning!

[Clymene]

Only eat processed food. It's the only way to be sure.

[S4SQAExams2020]

Obviously Rabbit is joking but reading everywhere about people using bleach. It is mad.

[JollyAndBright]

Bread... we usually buy fresh bread from the bakery section, we’ve been baking our own crusty bread and buying warbutons Packaged bread as it’s unlikely a person will have touched the bread.

Fruit and veg... I remove all outer packaging and wash and dry the fruit and veg before putting it away.

[Ernieshere]

I drank bleach when I was a toddler 43 years ago & it hasn't put me off using it watered down to wipe packaging. I dont dry it either.

[Flaxmeadow]

I dont think it's about eliminating all risk, which is impossible, but about reducing risk.

[Floatyboat]

Absolutely flax. Just wondering how people reduce the risk from the insides of food packets.

[P1nkHeartLovesCake]

I don’t even clean the packaging, we are all alive so far. Honestly the world has officially gone mad, washing the shopping

I think your somewhat over thinking this op. I mean really how many of the deaths do think actually for it from eating an apple or a slice of hovis

[BriefDisaster]

I wash fruit and veg as I always would.

Not worried about bread tbh that is getting a bit hysterical IMO.

[perniciousdot]

I just risk it. I was baffled the other week when I read a thread about sterilising strawberries.

[Ernieshere]

Its not about eating a slice of wrapped bread, its about the outer packaging that has been handled & taken off the shelf, put in a crate in store, then put into bags, that I get from click & collect.

Touching an item that someone else has touched (packaging, door handle, cash machine) and being mindful of cleaning/hand hygeine after that is good practice.

[BarbaraofSeville]

I've installed an irradiator plant in the porch. Everything that comes into the house gets a session in there.

DP has grown a second head and one of the cats has doubled in size in a week, but as you can't be too careful, you have to do what you can to eliminate the virus.

[HearthandHome]

I don’t clean anything or wipe it down.

[Watertorture]

Wash fruit, like I always should do but a bit better! Dunk bread out from the package into a Tupperware/cake tin. I don't worry about the virus living on bread for days, it's just the packaging

[BestZebbie]

You can wash vegetables! (I'm not washing any produce that we wouldn't have washed normally though)

I did feel that I might have crossed a line the other day though when I was brought a bunch of flowers - it turns out that you can immerse a bouquet in hot soapy water and it is completely fine afterwards....

[DozyDonkey]

I wipe everything down in a mild bleach solution, it gets dried and put in a separate Quarantine bag, that is not touched for a week, then put in cupboards and used. I am effectively just rotating my stock, I have a large stash that I started preparing for in January when the first reports of the virus came out, I had a bad feeling about it.

Bread packets and fruit gets wiped down but obviously we have to use the bread daily so just wash hands before and after getting it out of the packets. Milk bottles get washed and put in fridge, same with packets of ham, cheese, etc.

I am in the vulnerable group so am being extra careful.

[QuimJongUn]

If you're in the vulnerable group, fair enough, do whatever you feel you need to do to protect yourself. For everyone else, though, this is verging on madness.

I assume all you veg disinfecters/post quarantiners/shopping washers are also washing your clothes and having a shower every time you come home, too? What are you doing about your shoes/coats? And your car? The shopping bags have gone in there, after all. Are you disinfecting that too? Where does it end?

I'm not sure what's the most worrying anymore - the virus, or witnessing all the panic which is, for the most part, pointless seeing as most of us will get this eventually anyway. And the nasty superiority of those just desperate to judge/report others for imagined breaches of The Rules. If bleaching your strawberries and being reported to the police for posting letters (as someone on another thread recently was) is to become the norm I fear for the future, I really do.

[Wingedharpy]

Government guidance document for consumers on Covid 19 and food, out just now - no need to wash any packaging, just your hands.

[Floatyboat]

@wingedharpy

I guess that makes sense on a population level. There is a need for people to get infected before next winter. Not sure it is the best advice on an individual level.

[Jellybean27]

I’m wondering about clothes that have been delivered. Obviously I’ve wiped down the packaging it’s come in, but what about the clothing inside?

[Floatyboat]

I guess people treat that like Amazon parcels, letters etc. Either quarantine it in the garage for 96 hours or put it in the oven.