Why I am throwing out my reusable bags

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can understand the reaction, but there are other things you can do.

1. Buy washable bags
2. Buy the cold bags that are thicker and can be cleaned With Lysol wipes (trader joes sells one)
3. Ask that the raw meat be put in a plastic bag.

So instead of the possibility of food poisoning, you're now getting Lyson wipe residue on your food? Fantastic solution.

On the rare occasions I buy meat at the grocery store, I have it put in a plastic bag.

Do you people not WASH your food before you cook it? No one should be getting sick from anything if you properly wash your fruit and veggies, and properly cook your meat.

[Anonymous]

Your dirty reusable bags are probably a lot cleaner than the conveyer belts you put your food on when you buy them in the grocery store.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:do you all ever wash your purses?

So you're saying you never clean out the inside of your purse? Gross.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd think this would be relatively easy to track, quantitatively. We know when re-usable bags became widely used. Data exists on the number and type of food poisoning cases. Line those two up, see if they correlate.

Until someone shows actual data, all we will hear is "I got sick, probably from my bags" and "I've used re-usables for ever and never gotten sick." Which is of course useless.

Correlation is not causation.

Um, yes? I guess?

Correlation, IS, however, co-relation. As in, showing a relationship. And it's not useless, not matter how not-causation it may be. You know what else isn't causation? A bunch of anecdotes on a web forum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:http://reason.com/blog/2013/01/24/are-plastic-bag-bans-making-us-sick

DD got food positioning this fall twice and I never connected the dots. It's back to plastic for my family.

I can't say that food positioning has ever affected our family. And we position our food in all kinds of ways!

[Anonymous]

They always ask if we want the raw meat in a plastic bag, and we say yes. I think there are better solutions than going back to wasteful plastic bag use for everything.

[Anonymous]

There are plenty of plastic bags in "bag-free" supermarkets, in the produce or bulk sections. I just put my meat double-bagged in those before I bring them up to the checkout.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP,

I've used re-usable canvas bags since the 1990s. I've never gotten food poisoning from my groceries. (I have gotten it from a restaurant b/f--not pretty.)

Me too. I wash my bags occasionally and I always put raw meat into the plastic bags they have on rolls in the butcher section (I've seen these at Giant and Whole Foods; surely they're at most stores?). Use common sense precautions and you'll be fine, and your children's world won't be as polluted to boot.

[Anonymous]

Or go veg.

[Anonymous]

FYI -- Paper bags are notorious for harboring cockroaches.

"Entomologists, including Coby Schal of North Carolina State University, have observed that cockroaches prefer paper to plastic. “They really like to live in the creases found in paper bags,” said Schal, the nation’s top expert on cockroaches. Many cockroach species chew into paper bags to lay their eggs — something they don’t do with plastic."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:do you all ever wash your purses?

I wash everything!

[Anonymous]

OP, it's not the bags, it's your filthy kitchen.

[Anonymous]

So many solutions have already been mentioned, but I'll add another: use the same reuse able bag for meat and meat only.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:FYI -- Paper bags are notorious for harboring cockroaches.

"Entomologists, including Coby Schal of North Carolina State University, have observed that cockroaches prefer paper to plastic. “They really like to live in the creases found in paper bags,” said Schal, the nation’s top expert on cockroaches. Many cockroach species chew into paper bags to lay their eggs — something they don’t do with plastic."

Gross. Plastic it is.

[Anonymous]

I find the idea of washing grocery bags exhausting.