Is it a bit OTT to disinfect your shopping when you get it home?

[Bunnylady54]

I keep seeing posts on Facebook about doing this & tbh it wouldn’t have occurred to me at all. I keep as safe as I can when I shop but not sure it’s necessary to spray what you take home. Also saw something about washing coats etc when you’ve been for a walk.

Soap and hot water generally cleans well but you need to be quite thorough with that SD the cloth doesn’t stay hot for long and then you can just be rubbing a damp lukewarm
cloth over your shopping... which again might be better than nothing!

Well yes, of course you should disinfect it. Goodness knows who's been touching it before you. I'm even disinfecting bottles of squash after getting myself a drink and the milk carton after I'd made a brew. We've all seen the precautions the Chinese made, there really is nowhere where this virus cannot infect - even your own home isn't safe. You are probably infecting the food packaging yourself, if you pushed a supermarket trolley round then everything in it is infected.

Morrisons shopping is run by ocado and comes from a wharehouse

😃

No, I cannot live like that. It would send me bananas.

Me also.

Can one of those who wash their shopping please tell me how you deal with paper or cardboard packaging eg a bag of flour? Cat litter? A box of eggs?

And do you actually submerge bags of pasta in soapy water or spray it with cleaning products and then wipe? If the latter how can you be sure you've got into all the creases and the ridges along the seal?

What if you've bought a new antibac because you'd run out (and the shelf was bare on other shopping trips), but now have no antibac to clean your new antibac with

And why hasn't the Chief Medical Officer et al released information about the risks of touching supermarket products? Because if there's a real risk, wouldn't they have mentioned it alongside the 'only go out once per day for exercise, shop as infrequently as possible - only for essentials like food and medicine' bit?

We know Covid 19 can live on surfaces so of course there is a risk

I will be doing this when we receive our next delivery yes.

Ok for the first time ever - I damped down jclothe & wiped soap into it & wiped over (re did sop & water each time) over bread cover anything plastic covered than dried them & put them away - the rest that didn't need to go in fridge I left out for the day & put away next day - the till surface thing didn't look that clean (but for the first time ever the trolley did!) I picked veg in packets & only fruit had skins ie oranges/clementines & bananas. freezer food no problem (washing up liquid works the same way as soap (I think) & can be wiped off

That's why it's recommended to use antibacterial hand gel if you can't wash your hands.

The recommendation is to use a gel containing 60%+ alcohol. It is the alcohol that kills the virus, not the antibac part.

I can't believe what I'm reading.. what part of the science do some of you not get ??

I am a a pretty poor 'housewife' and come very much from the school of ' if food falls in the on the floor, just pick it up and dust it down' , adhering most of my life to - 'don't worry a bit of mould won't kill you ' . I am about as far from obsessively clean and tidy as you can get BUT :-

Facts.

1.This virus kills.
2.It lives in plastic and metal surfaces for at least 72 hours.
3.Plastic comes in to your house.
4.People pick items up in the supermarket and put them back.
5.Supermarket shelf stackers don't get the opportunity to wash hands every 20 minutes..

Why on earth would you NOT wipe it all down with hot soapy water when you receive it. ? Why would you not wear disposable gloves when you leave the house. ? This killer could be on lamp posts, shopping baskets, trolleys, bus doors, parking meters .. the list is endless. The government is 'hoping' we ONLY get 20,000 deaths ! .. how on earth do you think all those people are catching it ? Do you really think all those people have been coughed and sneezed on ?

You people who think wiping shopping down is bizarre or a joke need to get yourselves educated about viral epidemiology.
... and btw all of you worrying about being anxious, for once , you have every right to be. It's the ones who think you are being ridiculous who will have to learn the hard way. I think this is called 'natural selection'.

I think it is very OTT to do this. I'm just washing my hands more often, that's it

Same here.

Just wash it with soapy water if you're concerned. If you're at risk, you shouldn't have gone to the supermarket, anyway.

If you're at risk, you shouldn't have gone to the supermarket, anyway

We all need to eat.

And, as mentioned above, you could have shopping delivered but it has still been handled.

I've read it several times but I cant find it. Please highlight where it says it kills the Covid19 strain. TIA

^"2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) is a new strain of coronavirus. It is not yet available for commercial testing.

Specific Dettol products have demonstrated effectiveness (>99.9% inactivation) against coronavirus strains from the same family as the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) in third party laboratory testing, when used in accordance with the directions for use. These products are: Dettol Antibacterial Surface Cleanser Spray, Dettol Antibacterial Surface Cleanser Wipes, Dettol All-In-One Disinfectant Spray, and Dettol Disinfectant Liquid.

Given the structural similarities of the COVID-19 virus to the coronavirus strains tested previously (SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV, Human Coronavirus), and based on the evidence available to us, we would expect our Dettol products (listed above) to be effective against the new strain. Definitive scientific confirmation of this, as with all other commercially available virucides, can only be provided once testing against COVID-19 Coronavirus has been conducted, following release of the strain by relevant health authorities.^"

As I said, it almost certainly does. This particular strain of coronavirus is just too new to have been available for commercial testing.

Quite why you would wish to discourage people from using a product that is almost certainly effective against coronavirus, especially in circumstances where they may not have easy access to alternatives, is beyond me.

No Dettol availably any more and anti-bacterial stuff often does kill viruses as well. In the last couple of days I have been using kitchen spray with bleach on food I've just bought. It's not perfect though. I come in, take my shoes off then wash my hands, then take my coat off then wipe the stuff, possibly touching switches and doors in between so if it's on my coat I might be contaminating myself again. I don't think we can have a perfect system. The risk with groceries is probably quite low.

Yes I would appreciate more advice on how to disinfect things. Presumably you need to make sure that your cloth has a certain concentration of soap and that the soap is in contact with all parts of the item for a least 20 secs? Or you need to use a 60%+ alcohol solution/wipe and keep all surfaces wet with this for at least 60 seconds?

I would also like tips on how to do this with food in paper packaging, etc. Presumable with tins you remove the paper by washing but what if it is a carton or packet made of paper?

Cohle

we would expect our Dettol products (listed above) to be effective against the new strain. Definitive scientific confirmation of this, as with all other commercially available virucides, can only be provided once testing against COVID-19 Coronavirus has been conducted, following release of the strain by relevant health authorities.^"

Thanks for this

Also, sorry, one more thing...with toiletries eg pack of face wipes or shower gel, often it is hard to wash without washing the germs into the pack or under the lid, and possibly making matters worse. How are you guys solving this?

"Why would you not wear disposable gloves when you leave the house. ?"

Because they wouldn't stop me catching it. You wear gloves, you touch something then touch your face. More dangerous than having bare hands but using hand sanitiser before and after touching your face.

Also because disposable gloves are not available in any shops anyway.

This is the advice for people shopping for others, so is equally applicable to shopping for yourself if you want to minimise risk. Nothing OTT about it at all, especially at this critical moment before we enter the next phase of the pandemic, I’d rather not have changed everything then get it because I thought this was pointless, especially just as the system is collapsing (for so many reasons but the NHS staff are incredible mainly). So why not just do it, takes 5 minutes, could make all the difference...

Not sure if the attachment posted?

Ah sorry - twice 😬

Adipose what did Dettol do to offend you?

Given current shortages, and that we have all been told to shop only when essential, I have no idea why you are so determined to put people off using a product that is effective. No one has tested any cleaners on this particular strain- scientists are still perfectly aware of what works against the coronavirus.