Disinfecting supermarket shopping ?

[Sue3111]

After the recent newspaper article on Washing your weekly shopping - advising that theres no need to continue disinfecting shopping as the virus is airborne. Are people still going to clean items brought from supermarkets?

Never disinfected my shopping, or my mail! Just washed/sanitised my hands after handling it. That way madness lies. What about the people who shop who haven’t washed their hands after using the toilet? Or go shopping when they feel a bit ‘off’ go home and an hour later go down with D&V? They’ve touched tins, veg etc? Where does it stop?

Wasn't there something on here where a poster said they put mail in their oven to kill germs?

Now that's over the top.

Never done it. Life is too short as it is without adding something else that needs to be done :)

We wiped down shopping at first but stopped after a few months. I think I will always wash my trolley or basket handle though (if there’s cleaning stuff available). This makes sense Covid or no Covid.

@Dailywalk

We wiped down shopping at first but stopped after a few months. I think I will always wash my trolley or basket handle though (if there’s cleaning stuff available). This makes sense Covid or no Covid.

I always used to carry anti bacterial wipes in my bag for the trolley, been doing it for years. The amount of people who don't wash their hands, children who sit in the seat and lick the handle - ugh!

I wash fruit that isn't going to be peeled before eating.

@joystir59

I wash fruit that isn't going to be peeled before eating.

I've always washed fruit that isn't peeled, not just during the pandemic.

Never wiped or disinfected other shopping. My logic being that in the unlikely event there is some virus on the packaging, it can only be passed on if you touch it then stick your hand/fingers in you mouth/nose/rub your eyes. It can't be absorbed through your skin and it can't jump out and attack you. So don't touch eyes/nose/mouth and wash your hands after putting your shopping away / during food prep and I cannot see the danger. I have a friend who still quarantines absolutely everything that comes into the house. but following my logic above I don't know why. Unless someone with a medical or virology background can persuade me that my logic is flawed.

I thought it was overkill from the start, but understand why some people did it from the beginning when we thought this virus was more awful than it turned out to be

I think it’s mega overkill to be doing it now and question the anxiety people must be experiencing to be doing it

I have always been an anti bacterial wipe carrier even prior to all this. mainly because I am partial to a post shopping snack in the car.

I never quarantined the post or anything as I thought that was very OTT. Just wash your hands regularly.

Always wipe mine down.
Takes no time at all.
My Mum does and friends do too.

Each to their own but I prefer to do it than not

@Hiphopopotamus

It’s bonkers that people ever did this and it’s even more bonkers that it’s still happening a year on.

Absolutely this!

We did spray and wipe our shopping, but now just wash hands afterwards

Those saying it's not worth it, I disagree when Covid was rife, supermarkets were one of the most likely places to contract it, infected people would likely be breathing it into the air and it would settle on anything - including your shipping
It's low incidence now so I'm not bothering, just washing hands after handling shopping

After this long if it was a massive factor in the spread of Covid and really important to do the slogan would be Hands/face/space/fresh air/wipe down your shopping.

For the moment we are, might as well continue now until our second vaccine. Now we do it though it feels gross to just shove unwashed stuff in the fridge next to fresh food!

@Sparklingbrook

After this long if it was a massive factor in the spread of Covid and really important to do the slogan would be Hands/face/space/fresh air/wipe down your shopping.

That is a very good point!

We do, takes no time at all.

Feels gross when you don't do it now. Just the thought of multiple peoples grubby hands on a food item before you take it home, yuck!

I was in the Lidl the other day and a woman was picking up the pizza slices from the bakery, inspecting them then put them back down 🤮.

I was in the Lidl the other day and a woman was picking up the pizza slices from the bakery, inspecting them then put them back down

Presumably the unwrapped ones in the bakery where they supply tongs gloves? Yes, I steer clear of all of that completely.

But it's not relevant to wiping cereal boxes etc.

Never did it. The formate theory of transmission from surfaces still exists but it is thought to be a very minor transmission method now, as far as I know. There is an interesting article in Nature about it (can’t do the link on my phone it’s called
“COVID-19 rarely spreads through surfaces. So why are we still deep cleaning?”). It doesn’t say it never happens but my reading is that everyday items pose very little threat indeed.
Given that infection rates are now so low (nobody in my area has tested positive for three weeks) the chance of coming across a surface with a significant viable viral load is as close to zero as to make no difference.

The other thing to remember is that you very probably can’t catch COVID by ingesting the virus, so those grubby fingers on the pizza are more likely to give you a stomach bug than COVID-19. If you were to get it from a surface it would be by transferring it to your nose or eyes by, for example, rubbing your eyes with your contaminated hand.

Lidl help yourself bakery makes me queasy I'd never buy anything from it it's so exposed

I also think with the uncovered bakery in Lidl people are mooching through for the slice of pizza with more topping or the 'best' one of the bunch. A box of Coco Pops is a box of Coco Pops really.

@Mrsjayy

Lidl help yourself bakery makes me queasy I'd never buy anything from it it's so exposed

I have always steered clear of communal help yourself food long before Covid. Salad bars and Pick n Mix etc.

I love the look of the things in the Lidl bakery but have steered clear since I was in there once and saw someone picking up pastries showing them to who they were with, putting them back and repeating. Talking over them, flicking bits of pasty, sniffing them, then putting it back and picking up another.

I mean WHY?!

I seem to have opened a can of worms

Dangerously close to OCD like behaviour.

Surely as well, our immune systems NEED to encounter some bacteria and viruses to keep working efficiently?? Some people are going to catch a cold next year and be floored by it. The mind boggles.