When grocery shopping with my mom when I was a kid, I have distinct memories of nipping a grape from a stack of grapes in the produce department and eating it. It was delicious not only because it was a grape, but also because it just felt naughty. I knew my mom would like it. And don’t judge me! Chances are you did the same.
Those days are definitely over, and they have been for a long time. In fact, they weren’t a good practice even back in the stone age when I did it, but alas, I wasn’t the brightest kid. With COVID-19 barreling through the nation and other nations around the world, it’s time to practice an abundance of caution.
Dr. Jeffrey VanWingen is a physician with Family Medicine Specialists from Grand Rapids who posted a video to YouTube with tips on how to best shop safely while we’re struggling with a pandemic. He addresses not only good practices while in the grocery store, but also how to handle the groceries and other items that we bring into our homes.
Listen, this isn’t about paranoia. Honestly, these are good practices to follow even in the best of times. For one thing, safe practices begin in the store, and before you even go into the store.
“When you’re out at the store, it’s not just about wiping down the shopping cart handle with an antiseptic wipe,” VanWingen said. “We need to be better than that when we go to the supermarket.”
The doc suggests wiping down the entire shopping cart with a disinfectant wipe before even adding your food and supplies to the cart. Another important tip he shares is to get in and get out. Don’t hang around for too long in the stores.
“Get what you need, get out, don’t loiter,” he told News 8. “Don’t read the labels, don’t pick something up — commit to buy.”
Once you get home, you need to keep your groceries outside of your home if you can.
This is important: coronavirus lives on surfaces for a period of time, up to three hours on plastic and up to three days on metal surfaces. Watch the video for exact specifics on this.
Once you get into your home, you need to work from two surfaces: one not sanitized and one sanitized. He explains it in a way that makes it very easy.
Dr. VanWingen goes into a lot of specific detail in the video. Make sure everyone you know sees this.
