Hints for safe grocery shopping:
Given that the density of cases is going up all around the country exponentially, the odds that an asymptomatic carrier has shopped at your favorite grocery store are going up too. So even though the stores are disinfecting things, other shoppers and stockers are still touching things with or without gloves, and moving the virus around. So depending on your level of paranoia and ocd, if you HAVE to go out for food, here are some suggestions.
This video demonstrates how one might go about getting food into your kitchen and refrigerator without bringing viral particles with it. He may have made some mistakes, but by and large this was helpful. I tried doing my shopping at an old folks session at Krogers and then bringing home a modest collection of items and following the directions, and it is harder than it looks to implement successfully. I was thoroughly stressed out when I finished because I didn’t
plan ahead.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjDuwc9KBps
The basic principles are having clean hands versus “dirty” ones, or one of each, and clean surfaces versus dirty ones, and not mixing them up. An added hint is unopened sections of newspaper are essentially sterile so if you put a section down and unfold it for use it is pretty clean, individual pages can be rolled up and put in trash one at a time after use. This tip came from my mother many years ago. She went to nursing school before there was penicillin, and learned that for delivering babies under less than clean conditions.
Before you set out, have a list preferably in your head of the needed items. If you’ve looked at the video, he shows three ways of decontaminating the surfaces covering the food:
1. Remove the coverings and dump the items into clean containers. Figure out which containers you can use for the items you want, and place at the ready. Here is where a helper would be fabulous when you come home.
2. Have the kitchen sink full of warm soapy water. You’d be surprised at the numbers of things that can survive water submersion, like vacuum packed cheeses, plastic bottles of milk as well as fruit. You absolutely are spitting in the wind trying to wipe off a bunch of bananas or plastic bags with sanitary wipes.
3. Wipe off items that can reasonably be sprayed or wiped off, these might be canned goods.
Shoes, clothing, and other items may need to be decontaminated , so set out with clothes you can put in the washer when you come home, shoes you can leave in the garage, and wear something with pockets that will hold the absolute essentials: car keys, phone, credit card.
Take your watch off! I didn’t think of that until I was trying to figure out how to sanitize it, and it is hard to wash your hands properly without drowning it.
Have in your car several pairs of disposable gloves, hand sanitizer, spray, and a bag or box to put contaminated gloves etc. in.
So bearing in mind what you are going to have to do with the food packages when you get home, get out of the car and put on some gloves, put a spare clean glove in a pocket, and go get your food. One of the gotchas was the perforated plastic boxes fresh raspberries and blueberries come in. After I got through dealing with them at home I was almost sorry I bought them, so plan ahead. Those are pretty much “put in a new container” items. Use the self checkout lane and their bags. Some stores have banned use of your own cloth bags. You can slip one (clean) hand out of its glove to reach into pocket for credit card and then put it back when done. Put glove back on, or another one, to bag your groceries, sorting as you go as to items that can stay in the garage in the car versus ones that you want to get into kitchen. Remove one glove to unlock car and open door. After unloading groceries, remove both gloves and put in your trash box, and for good measure use hand sanitizer before touching your steering wheel. When you get home, carefully decide the order of doing things. Perhaps put the “inside” grocery bags at the threshold, then take off shoes and leave them there, go inside and start the cleaning strategy. I felt obligated to put clothes in washer and take a shower when done, but I needed to wash my hair anyway! I am sure there are better ways, but these came to mind after I did it the hard way first. I think sterile technique would be a whole heck of a lot easier in a surgery where everything is laid out. My neighbor is a surgery nurse, and says she has been doing it so long it is second nature.
