While grocery shopping, you have to come in contact with tons of people. So that, how can you avoid germs during this time? The following tips will help you to shop for groceries in as safe a manner as possible.
1. Sanitize Your Cart
When you first enter the store, you will see that shopping centers are usually crowded, especially if you go to the big box supercenters. Sanitizing your cart has become essential.
Studies suggest that COVID-19 can live on surfaces for up to a few days. So wipe down the handles of shopping carts or baskets with a sanitizing wipe. Thankfully, most centers have installed hand sanitizer and wipe stations for you to clean your cart.
2. Wear a Mask
It’s easy to see how running errands can be dangerous to your health based on the information obtained from the shopping cart study. Some people hate wearing masks because they feel as if they are suffocating and their glasses fog up.
However, wearing that mask could prevent an infection. Now, any old cover won’t do. You can’t put a piece of cloth up to your face and think you’re protecting yourself.
The best mask to use is the N95 varieties that have breathing gills on the side. These allow you to breathe clean air and not inhale CO2.
3. Don’t Touch What You Don’t Plan to Take
Avoid the temptation to casually browse products that you don’t need or intend to purchase. Manufacturers lure you with tempting and colorful packaging that draws your eye. However, you should avoid touching items that aren’t on your grocery shopping list.
The fewer things you touch, the fewer germs you will pick up on your hands.
4. Stay Six Feet Away
Six feet is the magic number to keep you safe from airborne germs. The Center for Disease Controls says that you must stay about two arm’s lengths from anyone else in the store. If a person doesn’t cover their nose or mouth when they sneeze or cough, this is the appropriate distance to stay protected.
Even if a person does cover their face during an eruption, it still sends microscopic particles into the air. One breath of these germs is all it takes to make you sick. When you’re six feet away, those particles cannot travel that far, so the chances of you becoming sick diminish.
5. Shopping During Slow Times
Grocery shopping can be a nightmare if you go during peak times. You want to shop early or late, but never in the afternoon or after work. You get the best selection when you do your grocery shopping early, and you get the least crowd when you shop late.
You want to strive to have fewer people inside the building when you shop. The fewer people that you encounter, the lower your risk of contracting anything toxic.
6. Leave the Kids at Home
In peak seasons when the flu and other viruses are running rampant, it’s essential to leave the kids at home. Children like to touch everything they can get their hands on, and then put their hands into their mouth. When they put these germs into their mouth, they become infected.
Now the beautiful thing about kids is that they have strong immune systems. They can be a carrier for a virus and never get sick themselves. So they can bring the flu home to you, yet it won’t phase them one bit. Unless it’s necessary, leave the kids at home when grocery shopping.
7. Carry Hand Sanitizer
Did you know that the germiest areas you will encounter while grocery shopping is the meat counter, the produce section, and the pin pad for credit card transactions? While it’s not possible to run to the restroom and wash your hands after you touch each little thing, keep a bottle of sanitizer on you.
All it takes is to scratch your eye, touch your nose or mouth, and you will transfer bacteria. Think of all the people that don’t wash their hands after they use the restroom. These people are spreading fecal matter and other bacteria around, and it can easily make its way into your mouth.
8. Wash Your Hands
After your shopping trip, you need to make sure you get rid of the germs you’ve picked up. Before you touch the steering wheel in your car, take a wet wipe loaded with a disinfectant and wash your hands and anything you’ve touched. If you transfer any bacteria to your steering wheel, it will infect anyone that encounters it.
As soon as you get home, wash your hands with warm water and soap up to the elbow area. Make sure that you wash for at least 20 seconds and get a good lather going. Proper handwashing hygiene should be standard, but you should increase it during times of flu and other virus outbreaks.
9. Consider Delivery or Pick-up
You should consider your grocer will deliver or allow for an in-store pick-up. This is one of the best ways to reduce your risk is to avoid entering the store altogether.
Ask your delivery person to leave the groceries outside your door, or if picking up in the store parking lot, leave the cart at your trunk so you can load them without interacting directly.
10. Using Electronic Payments
You should use debit cards or other forms of electronic payment. This will reduce the need to touch paper money or coins, which can potentially carry germs. If using electronic payments is not possible, he recommends cleaning hands immediately after touching cash or coins.
11. Pay Attention to What You Put in Your Cart
As important as all the things you do to keep yourself safe from germs, it’s also important what you put inside your cart while grocery shopping. You can help build your immunity to fight off disease and infection by only eating healthy.
Did you know that garlic is a natural antibiotic that is known for its healing properties? It can help to boost your immune system. Lemons are another thing that should be on every household’s shopping list. These little citrus cuties are full of Vitamin C and can help to ward off colds and the flu.
