Handy Tips: How to Properly Clean Your Groceries During the COVID-19 Pandemic

In Handy Tips, we find ways that can improve your life and make it easier and explain why these tips work. Today, we will tell you how to properly clean and sanitize your groceries amid the coronavirus pandemic and why it matters.

A bit of background information:

In Finland, four academic institutions (Aalto University, Finnish Meteorological Institute, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland and the University of Helsinki) have studied how tiny particles that leave our body when we sneeze, cough, or even talk are carried through the air. The results were published on the website of Aalto University.

Scientists simulated and visualized the following situation: a person coughs in the aisle between the shelves in a grocery store and the coughing particles spread around him/her through the air, given the ventilation in the store.

As you can see in the video, the air currents immediately pick up the microparticles and carry them from the person who coughed to someone who was not even nearby, but in a different aisle. Of course, those particles will settle to the floor, but it will take them several minutes, during which other customers may approach the coughing person, not knowing that someone coughed there at all. By the way, microparticles can also settle on the grocery packaging.

After watching this video, you will send your dog or fish to the store instead of you:

And here’s how to stay safe when buying groceries during the COVID-19 pandemic:

The World Health Organization has not yet canceled the need to eat. During the pandemic, even the most ordinary activities like grocery shopping become a kind of sacred ritual. Therefore, we decided to tell you about 12 simple steps to follow to achieve the perfect cleanliness of your groceries.

These 12 simple steps will help you properly disinfect and handle groceries in the age of COVID-19, as well as keep yourself and your loved ones safe from the coronavirus that is trying to get into your house with the food you buy.

1. Try to take the goods out of your shopping bag while wearing disposable gloves.
2. After you take the groceries out of the bag, disinfect the sink and the countertop.
3. Wipe all products in plastic packaging with a wet wipe.
4. And, of course, don’t forget to wash your hands after you are done.
5. Currently, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does not consider sanitizing plastic-wrapped products necessary.
6. Soft fruits and vegetables (like tomatoes or strawberry) should be thoroughly washed in cold water.
7. A hard shell of fruits or vegetables (for example, carrots) is best wiped with an unnecessary toothbrush or a special brush.
8. Do not wash vegetables or fruits with soap, it will only harm them and you.
9. If you are still worried that you can bring coronavirus to your house with fresh vegetables, buy frozen ones.
10. Throw away paper or plastic bags after bringing food in them.
11. Wash eco-friendly reusable bags after shopping (by the way, we try to only use this kind of bags).
12. And, again, don’t forget to wash your hands after you are done with grocery shopping.