Posted on 10/03/2010 9:42:26 AM PDT by Leisler
DENVER -- They are good for the environment, but reusable grocery bags are also a breeding ground for bacteria.
Many responsible shoppers carefully choose their groceries and put them into the same cloth or plastic bags over and over again on every trip to the store.
“Did you ever wash your grocery bags?” asked Call7 Investigator Theresa Marchetta.
“Um, no! I never wash my plastic bags or my paper bags," responded a 7NEWS colleague.
Marchetta could not find anyone who regularly cleaned their reusable bags.
“Do you ever think to wash the bags?” Marchetta asked another colleague.
“No. Not really,” the other worker replied, laughing.
The CALL7 Investigators tested several reusable bags used by 7NEWS colleagues and another from a woman going into a Denver grocery store.
Marchetta took the lab results to Dr. Michelle Barron, the infectious disease expert at the University of Colorado Hospital.
"Wow. Wow. That is pretty impressive," said Barron.
Barron examines lab results for a living.
"Oh my goodness! This is definitely the highest count," Barron commented while looking at the bacteria count numbers.
She admitted she was shocked at what was found at the bottom of the bags.
"We're talking in the million range of bacteria," she said.
Marchetta used swabs provided by a local lab to test several grocery bags for bacteria, mold and yeast.
Three of the samples had relatively low bacteria counts, posing little risk of causing illness.
Two were in the moderate range, posing some risk, according to Barron.
Two other bags had extremely high counts -- 330,000 to nearly 1 million colonies of bacteria.
Four of the samples also had relatively high levels of yeast and mold.
"It would be a level of concern getting on your food, on your hands, too," said Barron. "Digging in there, you touch, rub your eyes ...all that good stuff.”
“Um, yeah, that's gross. Good to know,” said a 7News employee whose bags were tested.
It is not only gross, but also painful if you get sick.
"You can have a terrible diarrhea, stomach ache, vomiting. Not a fun thing to have," said Barron.
To demonstrate the risk, Marchetta dusted grocery bags with a substance that glows in the dark to see how harmful germs can travel.
With the lights off, it was clear the Glo-Germ had not only stuck to our groceries, it was also on Marchetta’s hands, the counter top, and in the cupboard and refrigerator.
“They like porous surfaces and live longer on plastic,” said Barron, about the bacteria.
Fortunately, it is a problem that is easy to fix.
Wash reusable bags or wipe them out with a bleach wipe after each use.
"We're trying to be environmental. I fully support that. But not at the cost of your health," said Barron.
Another suggestion -- designate one bag for each type of food to prevent germs from spreading.
Paper/plastic=cleanliness
Fermented chicken juice, mmmmm.
so now the greenies can become martyrs, just like the suicide bombers.
A cashier called Lars Larson’s show on Friday to complain about how dirty they are. Said she reached in one once and was bitten by a snake.
Sticky frozen orange juice concentrate leakage, mmmmm.
Fermented mashed lettuce and peach smears, mmmmm.
Don’t care much for dirty hippies, but I do like my canvas bags ... I’ve had them since the early 90’s. I wash them every week with the utility towels. They are much larger and sturdier than plastic. Unfortunately, paper bags transfer insects when you live in the hot and humid Deep South. YMMV
L. L. Bean.....Great bags!
I have two of them. A small one, and a large one. Whenever I do a load of laundry, I just toss them in. No big deal.
SO, how much plastic is used to make a one gallon milk container and how many plastic bags could be made from that?
I weighed a milk container, 66 grams. Plastic bag, 4 grams.
To the enviro nazis I say keep using plastic bags but bring your own milk jug
I just use the plastic bags for garbage disposal afterwards. Im too cheap to buy those big black garbage bags..why do these fn treehuggers want to make my life complicated?
I've got a couple of their canvas bags and love them. If they need cleaning, I just pop them in the washer and then the dryer. One I've probably had for over 20 years!!
Using reusable bags is hardly a liberal idea. To conserve and not waste is purely conservative. However, I’m not surprised that liberal hippies would have dirty hippy juice all over their things.
I’ve never seen anybody put produce in a canvas bag before they check out and get their groceries bagged, but maybe that’s just my area. Come to think of it, I don’t know a bunch of folks with feces on their floors in the first place, but I live in a small community. Again, I’ll concede that YMMV. I love my canvas bags and have never had a problem related to them in nearly 20 years.
dirty hippy juice
You owe me a keyboard
The only bags in which milk does really well are still attached to the cow ...
But that’s ok, the only thing that matters is that people feeeeeel good about using them.
Or you could wash the bags
or you could put meats into plastic and reserve the reusable for canned or boxed food.
I like the bags because they hold a lot more which means fewer trips in from the car.
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