ottawa foodies

Yesterday, I was in a granola mood, but today I'm not, so I thought I'd forward this article from The Citizen ( www.ottawacitizen.com ) that suggests (via a plastics industry funded study ) that soiled resuable shopping bags pose a health risk. I had always figured you should keep your reusable bags clean and dry (i.e. run them through the laundry just like everything else), but it hadn't occured to me that not only do I have to worry about the cleanliness of my bags, but also of the bags of the person in front of me... This I find much more disturbing. There are some who say... well your fresh produce should always be cleaned before being consumed, but I say to them, NOBODY would buy from a store that actually had fecal matter on their produce, so shouldn't it similarly bother you if that same material came from the handling of the reusable bag from the person in front of you? Perhaps those green bins from Loblaws are not such a bad idea after all...

I will buy that if you don't wash something, bacteria could form (whether its a green bin or a beige bag). Absolutely, if you don't take the same care for your reusable bags as you do for your other food preparation and storage containers, you're at a risk for bacteria growth.

Having said that, nowhere in the article does it mention the ground for the claim "Supermarket checkout staff may be transferring microbes from one bag to another". Again, common sense dictates, if you're using your reusable bag for groceries then wash it before using it for diapers or clothes. Seriously! I use my tupperware to carry art supplies. I wash them thoroughly before using them again, like any other food preparation surface.

Honestly, this was a study commissioned by the plastics industry. What do you expect to be the results?

Perhaps I'm just over-reacting now that I'm working for the nanny state...

Am i the only one to have groceries rolling around my van, or trunk of my car? If anyone had seen what my kids have done to my vehicles, they wouldn't be worried about the bags :)

Seriously - just wash the fruit and veggies, and don't lick the cans.

It sounds like the plastic bag industry is trying to win us back by making the re-usable bag option as unattractive as possible. Some bags even contain fecal matter? Are they using the bags themselves as diapers?-;)... Admittedly I do use those cloth bags and after a trip to the market they do get a little grungy. There's nothing like trying to shake out the onion skins, dirt, etc. after an outing but I just toss them in the washing machine and I don't worry about salmonella, food poisoning or any other germs these bags are allegedly giving me.

The point brunchlady, wasn't what you, or I, or a common sense person would do, but what would that seedy looking person in line in front of you do?

Yes, and my point was that if we relied on people to use common sense, and if people actually used common sense, there would be a great deal less news to report on.

Luckily for the journalists in the world, there are enough seedy looking people and a twenty-four hour news cycle!

Also, brunchlady sounds like a fine nickname :P

Yep, just wash those bags.
People transport not only diaper stuff but also gym clothes in the same bags they use for groceries! I personally find that hard to fathom but...you never know. Especially when the plastic industry conducted the study.
And if you like to recycle and you use a dishwasher, milk bags and those awesome blue LCBO bags can be placed on the upper shelf of a dishwasher and weighted down with top shelf items. Turn them inside out, run through your cycle and now they are disinfected. (**Make sure they can't escape and melt onto the burner of your dw)!

WC: Awesome ideas. I used to handwash milk bags. The problem is, they aren't really recyclable. The city won't take them.

you can't recycle milk bags, but you can reuse them for a long time. much better than ziplock, or take them to the grocery store to put your veggies in. i hate how people use a million plastic bags in the produce section and think nothing of it. those bags are plastic too. i bring my own or go without. if they need bags, there should be a stack of paper bags available, which we could at least put in the compost or out with the paper recycling.

yes ma'am. I'm a proponent of bringing my own containers to the bulkbarn (plus, no messy transfering afterwards. usually, they're pretty good about weighing the container before i fill it, and marking the weight.

same thing with produce. if it's not wet, you don't really need a bag, IMHO. and if it is wet, bring a plastic bag to reuse. (vendors in the market are especially bad for handing out bags left, right and centre)

Are paper bags really safe to put in your compost? I would wonder if there was anything added during manufacture (esp if it's recycled paper) that one would not want on their veggie garden (versus just dropping the compost on your lawn or somewhere else it won't directly re-enter my our food chain)