Why I am throwing out my reusable bags
![[Post New]](/jforum/templates/default/images/icon_minipost_new.gif){kind=icon}
Anonymous
I'm glad you two said it, so I don't have to. |
Anonymous
| There was a story about a whole team (high school sports team or something) that caught the norovirus and it was traced back to these bags. I will have to find it... |
Anonymous
| Hot tip! The plastic bags for fruit, bagels, etc. are still free and you can put your meat in them. |
Anonymous
Anonymous
| I'm coming down on the side of, "It's OP's cooking, not the bags." |
Anonymous
|
I don't get it.
All of my veggies and other non-meat items are in plasic bags within the reuable bag and most baggers put plastic around the meats. Also, most eColi cases seem to come from veggies and fruits anyways, not chicken. I guess people should pick up some bleach spreay and wipe their bags out every once in awhile. This "study" is idiotic. |
Anonymous
Hilarious! You read one article and you are thowing away your bags, instead of wiping them down or MAYBE cleaning your kitchen a bit better since you have rampant food born illness in your house. I bet the inside of your fridge is a drippy disgusting mess. |
Anonymous
| Told you OP. You're getting your ass kicked (although I agree with you). better to just shut off your laptop and walk away. |
Anonymous
Yes, this. We're in MoCo and there haven't been any additional cases if food poisoning that I have heard of amongst my friends/ family. Get washable bags if it bugs you. We rarely wash ours, but I do always put the meat in a plastic bag before bagging. Agree with the PP who mentions that plastic bags are doing harm to our kids' health for sure. |
Anonymous
This article is more about the difficulty combatting norovirus than it is an indictment on re-usable bags. If, in fact, the bag was the carrier, it could have just as easily happened with a plastic bag or tupperware as a re-usable bag. The point of the article was that this was the first time they were able to link an outbreak with an inanimate object. Norovirus is highly contagious and difficult to combat once it starts (think of the cruise ships and the disinfection protocols they have to go through when there's an outbreak on board). We've used re-usables for over 10 years and have never gotten sick from it. |
Anonymous
|
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. |
Freeman
Member Offline
Member Offline
The bag was contaminated because it was in the bathroom when the first person with the virus was vomiting. If you read the article, you'll see that they found the contamination on the outside of the bag, and the others were infected simply by the contact with the bag, not because they ate the food contained in it. The same thing would have happened with any type of container that had been exposed to the virus and not cleaned. The scientists have seen similar outbreaks caused by door handles and other common surfaces, but they had never been able to definitively track down a single point of infection before this case. They even state at the end that this isn't a reason to get rid of reusable bags, as it could have happened with a plastic bag just as easily. As for the general fear of food poisoning, the bags are as safe as the person using them. If you treat them like any other reusable food container, with regular cleanings, it will be just as safe. I tend to separate all my meats into one bag, so I can wash that bag afterwards.(And that's even if the meats are also in plastic bags inside my bags to reduce any leaks) I don't worry much about the bags with boxes or canned goods. |
Anonymous
|
Don't stop using the bags, just use your common sense. People, as well as baggers, seemed to have forgotten common sense when they started reusing bags.
Yes, reusable bags get gross fast. I use canvas bags and wash them. I also ask for any raw chicken to go into a paper bag, separately. It's true that baggers don't know how to bag anymore. I had a high school job as a grocery store bagger and they were very clear about how to bag. You didn't put bread and eggs into something that could smash them, for instance. I usually do the grocery shopping so I'm used to having to direct the bagging (and I also help rather than just stand there, if possible). It's not just raw foods sitting next to the cilantro... DH went to whole foods last week and isn't used to how they bag so didn't pay attention and came home with one bag containing a rotisserie chicken (hot) and a bag of frozen shrimp and gelato in the same bag. The chicken was very cold and the shrimp were thawed and the gelato had melted and leaked some. They'll also smash your bread, etc. It's like when you start using your own bags, all of the directions for how to safely bag food (both for food safety AND for compatibility factor, IE not smashing your bread with cans) went out the window. A little bit of micromanaging at the check out counter may make you annoying, but it will help you save money and be safer, while remaining green in the meantime. OP, you still don't need to stop using reusables. Just use the kind you can wash. Problem solved! |
Anonymous
| The OP is example #4,837 of all of the neurotic head cases who frequent these boards with their absurd phobias. |
Anonymous
| IME Trader Joe's still trains its people in how to bag well. Everywhere else is clueless. It's especially bizarre when you do use plastic and watch them double-bag 10 items in 4 bags when it'd all fit in 2. |