Are you still wiping groceries?

[Lovely1a2b3c]

Just that! We have been wiping food shopping items as some of the family are vulnerable (not shielding) but wondering if it's time to stop?

Nothing gets in the house without being wiped. Fresh veg and fruit gets washed before putting away.

Never did. Washed hands after unpacking.

Never did...dh has a microbiology degree....scrupulously washing hands after handing food/ packaging is much more effective

Yuk at the thought of eating fruit washed in milton
I'm always amused by the" cant be too careful " brigade
Well you can
If what you are doing by being "careful " puts you more at risk than the original risk you faced
God knows what chemicals people are ingesting and what risk that will pose to their health

Yes there is such a thing as "being too careful". Our whole lives revolve around our willingness to run moderate levels of risk - getting into a car despite the statistically-tiny-but-real-risk of an accident, letting our kids clamber around on climbing frames despite the statistically-tiny-but-real-risk of an injurious fall.

I definitely agree about the chemicals thing too, especially given that producing & packaging & transporting all these chemicals isn't exactly cost-free from an enviromental point of view.

Nope, didn’t even bother starting to wash food packaging. Am shielding so don’t leave the house but DH does for bits and pieces plus going to chemist etc. He will wash his hands when he gets home. Other than that we are carrying on pretty much as usual!!

@itisbetter I may have rinsed the soil off potatoes if they were particularly caked, otherwise never washed any other shopping or foodstuffs even before the pandemic. I have genuinely never felt the need to.

@Itisbetter

I love the idea that washing your groceries will lead to mental health problems and is somehow too much effort. . You do know that MOST people in hotter countries or who buy their food from markets wash it when they get home don’t you? My grandmother used to do it (think 1950ish). It’s really not a new thing you guys have just been being gross without noticing. Why on earth WOULDN’T you wash something that might have been coughed/sneezed on, dropped on the floor, walked over or pissed on by rodents, or whatever?

Are you talking about fruit and veg when you say market? I think most people give them a quick wash, but that's also to remove surface pesticides which in normal times are probably worse for you than than the odd droplet.

The rest of the shopping? Absolutely not, and there's nothing gross about that. I'm not sure what relevance what one person did in the 1950s is, bearing in mind we shopped very differently in those days and hygiene standards for shops were very different. I guess folk in hot countries are more bothered if they are buying things from outdoor stalls where flies are more prevalent maybe.

I can’t help but wonder what the increased limonene/formaldehyde in everyone’s diet as a result of washing veg in soapy water, using harsh chemical wipes on packaging and merrily spraying antibacterial products on surfaces is going to do to our long term health.

But other health concerns, and concerns about chemicals, single use plastic and the environment have gone out the window. None of that matters as long as you don;'t catch Covid. Even though for the vast majority it's a very minor illness.

Never done this, I do admit to spray the handles of the wheelie bins with disinfectant spray when I have to bring them in from the road though

@PinkFondantFancy

I never did and I open my post as soon as it arrives and have throughout. However, I am not superhygienic and eg believe in the "3 second rule" if something falls on the floor which most of you would be horrified about!

We have to stop using so many chemicals. Soap and water are fine for hands, and for most hard surfaces too. You don't have to bleach or disinfect everything all the time.

But other health concerns, and concerns about chemicals, single use plastic and the environment have gone out the window. None of that matters as long as you don;'t catch Covid I agree.

never did wipe anything, never saw the point, just washed hands but then i've always done that.

@BashStreetKid

More that I think it's actually extremely unhealthy to worry about washing shopping and quarantining post, and in the long run I think it's going to lead to a lot of serious germ obsessions and anxieties.

Well, no. I don't worry about it, I just take very easy precautions: I wash my hands after opening post, I wipe perishable shopping before I put it away - which takes all of 10 minutes at most - and I quarantine non-perishable for 72 hours. I'm probably the least hygiene-obsessed person I know - for instance, I don't care about "eat by" dates so long as whatever it is doesn't smell - but even I can see that it makes sense to put in 10 minutes work per week to avoid a virus which could cause me to die a particularly horrible death.

You may not worry about it, but do I think if you have children who are sat watching you sterilise everything that comes through the front door, it can't be healthy for them in the long run.

Of course you're free to do what you want, but to me it makes no sense. I have GAD and if I started feeling the need to wash my shopping and quarantine my post, my mental health would very quickly spiral out of control.

I think the environmental concerns are valid too.

All of a sudden, nobody cares about single use plastics, excessive use of disinfectant and bleach. I wonder how many millions of unnecessary pairs of gloves and disposable masks have people binned over the last three months? How much bleach and Zoflora or whatever have we chucked down the drains and into our rivers and seas?

Do we need to live in sterile, disinfected bubbles? Aren’t we going to catch colds and flu bugs when released back into the world?

OP if any of the vulnerable people have immune problems then you should have been cleaning shopping long before Covid-19 and been discriminating on what pre-prepared food they ate.

Nope. Never have...never will.

@Siddalee

Surfaces Are ‘Not the Main Way’ Coronavirus Spreads, C.D.C. Says

It's still a potential source of infection but transmission is primarily person to person via respiratory droplets or aerosols.

I think I washed my shopping on the first week of lockdown. Realised it was a total faff and the odds of getting it from that were tiny. I left Amazon parcels for 24hrs in the hall. Not always intentionally because of the virus but because I'm just really unorganized

Haven't washed any shopping since all this started. I wash my hands after unloading it from the car then wash again after everything has been put away. Loose fruit and veg that would normally be washed before eating/prepping but that's it.

Yes I spray all packaging with dettol all in one spray and always wash hands

@MrBennsshop I’m talking about the weekly food shop which is really all we’re buying at the moment. What items are you referring to?

We have a system and it’s no faff. After I get home from click and collect, all fridge items go in the sink, wash like I’m washing up, DH notes all the meat use by dates on the magnetic pad for the fridge door as he dries and puts them away.

Omg, I'm so sorry I'm sure you have your reasons for doing this but I actually laughed out loud when I read it - can imagine your house is just a riot of fun times 🙈