Dirty groceries you bring home

by Edwin Smith
(Fort Lauderdale, Florida)

This really bother me and it's time I commented on my observation. It is the groceries you bring home from the market, touch every package as others do when shopping, place it in a grocery cart, when has it been cleaned last? Place the groceries on a black conveyor belt, have a bagger or the cashier bag your groceries after handling the money, giving your change and all. Then you come home, place all the items on your counter and begin to sort them out. These go in the refrigerator, these in the pantry, these are for laundry, Oh, this goes in the bathroom.

Then you proceed to place the milk containers, the gallon of juice, the packages of butter, margarine, sour cream, eggs, meat packages, deli items in the refrigerator without at least wiping them off or disenfecting the pacakages. How clean is your refrigerator really? It's not clean at all, it is filthy with microorganisms, bacteria and God only knows what else.

If you have a few items you place them in the front of the grocery cart that is made for a child to sit in, maybe with a dirty diaper or urinated. Can you imagine that, the cart is never washed, you have urine in the refrigerator now. That is disgusting.

You must change your habits, wash your hands, take the meats out of the original containers and place in zip lock bags, at least spray the bottles of milk and such with a clorox or lysol solution, wipe clean and dry. Take the butter or margarine out of the boxes it came in and store in a container. See what I mean, If you think about it, there is no way I am wrong. I worked in an operating room for 10 years, I am a RN, I know my cleanliness. Even though it is a bit more work, I know I have a CLEAN refrigerator, my kitchen is also clean, I am not a clean freak, I just use some common sense when it comes to cross contamination.