How to Sanitize Your Groceries During the COVID-19 Outbreak

The whole world is suffering due to the COVID-19 outbreak and as a precautionary measure; the government has announced the shutdown of all the supermarkets, offices, schools, restaurants, and every leisure place. Only general merchandise stores and grocery stores are open with proper guidelines to fulfill the basic needs.

Do you know that the COVID-19 virus can be viable for up to 48-72 hours on certain items? If you select your grocery wisely and take extra care, it should reduce the risk of exposure to the virus. Here is how to sanitize your hands and how to sanitize your grocery basket for extra protection.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, everything is closed except the grocery stores where you can purchase necessary essentials and vegetables. Everybody is locked down in their homes and asked to stay where they are. During such a phase, if you plan to move out, you should take precautionary measures.

Precautions to Take While Stepping Out of the House

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In this lockdown situation when everybody is staying back at home except for essential activities like exercising, walking their dogs, medical care, collecting medicines, or groceries from the supermarket or general merchandise stores. You can reduce the risk of COVID-19 infection and ensure that you carry disinfected groceries at home.

• Don’t go out unnecessarily just for entertainment.
• Carry disinfecting wipes or facial tissues when going out.
• Mind before placing your belongings like a wallet or phone at a public place.
• Use your key, elbow, knuckles, or preferably a toothpick instead of fingertips.
• If possible, wear safety gloves if you need to touch a lot of things during travel.
• Ensure that you cover your face with a genuine mask as soon as you step out of your house.
• While others recommend washing hands, I suggest taking a shower as soon as you come back home for your mental peace.
• Carry a pocket sanitizer if not wearing hand gloves and 1-2 toothpicks to press the buttons.
• Maintain social distancing (1-meter distance) with anyone and everyone you meet.
• Don’t panic unnecessarily and maintain physical and mental peace all the time.
• Stop handling cash, rather pay online or using a phone wallet.
• Limit touching unnecessary items if you don’t need them.
• Put all your grocery items on the balcony for a few hours.

How to Sanitize your Grocery

It is very important that once you come back from shopping, sanitize and clean all the items that you have got from the grocery store. Here are quick ways to do the same.

Sanitize Vegetables

It is advisable not to apply any sanitizer or disinfectant lotion on unpacked edibles. Just use lukewarm water to wash all the fruits and vegetables, put them into normal room temperature water after washing with warm water and rinse them off the basket.

Wipeout items with a round or flat surface with a clean cloth and allow them to dry up before putting them into the refrigerator. For leafy vegetables, you may rinse them gently and put them under the fan to dry up properly. Put them safely into the refrigerator and wash again before using them.

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Avoid consumption of cauliflower, leafy vegetables, and raw food during this pandemic situation. Avoid meat, poultry items as Coronavirus is a zoonotic disease and spreads from animals to people. Increase the consumption of garlic, ginger, onion, and lemon as these anti-bacterial ingredients will strengthen your immune system and can help you fight with any sort of bacteria.

Sanitize Packed Food & Other Items

It is necessary to sanitize packed food items such as packet of wafers, tin packed food, biscuits and cookies packets, and other vacuum-packed food items. You can simply take a clean cloth and spray some antibacterial lotion on the cloth and wipe out all the packets. If you don’t have a lotion to apply, simply add a few drops of Dettol in half a cup of boiled water, soak the cloth, and wipe every packet one-by-one.

As per the research, coronavirus infection can live for up to 24 hours on cardboard and up to 72 hours on plastic packaging. Though it is not transmissible via food items, still to be on a safer side, we can take this extra step to keep items infection-free and for our own mental peace.

Bonus Tips

• Do not carry your kids along as this is not a fun trip.
• If you are above 60 years of age, avoid going out to a grocery store.
• If you have been exposed to any of the symptoms of coronavirus, if you have cough cold or high temperature, avoid going to public places and directly visit a nearby hospital or COVID-19 centers.
• If you are going through underlying medical conditions like lung disease, liver, kidney, cancer, or weakened immune system, send other adults to go and shop for you.
• If you have online orders and home deliveries available, avoid stepping out and rely on them.
• Don’t mug up all the items, just pick what you need, stocking is not required.
• Follow the centers of disease control, CDC advisory guidelines for COVID-19.
• Try to shop in off-hours like early in the morning or late in the evening.

Summing Up

Going out and having fun is not more important than staying safe during this lockdown. Stay isolated and stay quarantined until this COVID-19 outbreak is over. Keep a special check on loose food items and maintain proper hygiene while shopping for your loved ones. Sanitize yourself and your you food items before they come in contact with your family members. Ensure that you are disinfecting everything before they come in contact with your family members. Though there is no evidence of transmission of infection through food items, still it is better to be cautious about your mental peace.

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