E. coli found on 50 percent of shopping carts

[azmouse]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41838546/ns/...parenting/

Quote:Researchers from the University of Arizona swabbed shopping cart handles in four states looking for bacterial contamination. Of the 85 carts examined, 72 percent turned out to have a marker for fecal bacteria.

**snip**

“That’s more than you find in a supermarket’s restroom,” said Charles Gerba, the lead researcher on the study and a professor of microbiology at the University of Arizona. “That’s because they use disinfecting cleaners in the restrooms. Nobody routinely cleans and disinfects shopping carts.”


Shopping cart handles aren’t the only thing you need to worry about when you go to the local supermarket, Gerba added. In other research, he’s found that reusable shopping bags that aren’t regularly washed turn into bacterial swamps. “It’s like wearing the same underwear every day,” Gerba said.

Ok... I'm disgusted. And I'm washing all my grocery bags this minute if not sooner

[There Is No Spoon]

Ewww!

[Pisces]

That is disgusting. My store offers wipes by the carts.

[azmouse]

(03-01-2011 06:58 PM)Pisces Wrote:  That is disgusting. My store offers wipes by the carts.

My store does too, and I think I'll start using them now.

[jaxx]

I carry some hand sanitizer in my purse. Ewwww no wonder I hate grocery shopping.

[DFLforever]

I find this kind of hard to believe.

85 shopping cars in four states?

Are those impressive numbers in terms of bacterial research.

[DFW]

VERY scary. When I'm in the States, I use them all the time.

[nofurylike]

thank you for the heads up, azmouse!
eeek!
" ... I'm washing all my grocery bags this minute if not sooner"!

[livetohike]

What if they swipe where little kids sit on that shelf in the shopping cart? Ewwww.

[NoPasaran]

It would seem then that people should be dropping dead right and left. But apparently this isn't happening.

[Cha]

I certainly never think about the germs/bacteria being passed on grocery carts so thanks for the FYI, az!

[Ikonoklast]

I kinda suspected that, after being in retail food for so long.

I can't even begin to count how many times I saw a customer use our restroom, and walk right back out into the store and resume shopping without washing their hands.


We were HAACP certified, and our cleanliness was phenomenal in the back of the store. Management was fanatical about it, and so were the employees.

Customers?

Had no control over that. We had customers that would crap on the floor of the restroom, and this was a fairly upscale neighborhood.

[azmouse]

(03-03-2011 01:27 PM)Ikonoklast Wrote:  Customers?

Had no control over that. We had customers that would crap on the floor of the restroom, and this was a fairly upscale neighborhood.

Oh yeah, I hear ya on that. I watch kids sitting in the carts, at just the right height for it, drag their dirty feet over produce, and the parent with them says nothing about it.
Some stores here used to have open bins of rice and beans. Thankfully they've stopped that. But while the bins were there, I couldn't tell you the number of times I saw kids stick their germy hands into the bins and stir the stuff around. I wouldn't use those rice and beans if they were paying me to do it.

[There Is No Spoon]

...is how many kids I've seen put their mouths on that handle when they're sitting in the cart. I know my little girls did it before I could flip out and make them stop.

[azmouse]

(03-03-2011 02:33 PM)There Is No Spoon Wrote:  ...is how many kids I've seen put their mouths on that handle when they're sitting in the cart. I know my little girls did it before I could flip out and make them stop.

I'm thinkin' this all falls under the heading of "what doesn't kill us only makes us stronger".

[Born_A_Truman]

Heather (my daughter) uses a cloth covering in her shopping carts for the baby that's made for it. Target has cart wipes right in the entrance and I've started using them.