Brad Gertsman, lawyer, lobbyist and co-founder of the New York Association of Grocery Stores writes in a New York Post op-ed that reusable grocery bags are a health risk.
New York City’s do-gooders are at it again, this time looking to put a 10-cent fee on each plastic bag that stores normally provide to their customers without charge.
The irony here is that the bag fee poses a direct threat to New Yorkers’ health.
Problem is, reusable bags play a significant role in food contamination unless they’re properly washed on a regular basis — something people rarely do.
In a public-health study done at the University of Arizona, researchers found that only 3 percent of shoppers with multi-use bags said they regularly washed them. The same study found bacteria in 99 percent. Half carried coliform bacteria, and 8 percent carried E. coli — an indicator of fecal contamination.
A study by the Centers for Disease Control verified the dangers: “Reusable bags, if not properly washed between uses, create the potential for cross-contamination of foods.
“This potential exists when raw meat products and foods traditionally eaten uncooked (fruits and vegetables) are carried in the same bags, either together or between uses. This risk can be increased by the growth of bacteria in the bags.”
The paper Gertsman cites study showed that generic E. coli can be floating around in bags, recoverable in seven of the 84 bags in the study but can it be (or is it likely) to be transferred to any ready-to-eat foods, or somehow to food contact surfaces in the home? Just because the bacteria might be there, doesn’t mean it can contaminate a ready-to-eat food. No one has presented data to support that. In a cross-contamination event there is a dilution effect when it comes to transfer and it needs some sort of matrix to facilitate the transfer.
A couple of years later I exchanged emails with the insightful and entertaining Bill Keene (who is missed), who had investigated a norovirus outbreak that had been linked to storing foods in reusable bags in a hotel restroom. Keene confirmed that the type of bag was irrelevant: “This story had nothing to do with disposable bags, reusable bags, or anything similar. It is about how when norovirus-infected people vomit, they shower their surroundings with an invisible fog of viruses—viruses that can later infect people who have contact with those surroundings and their fomites. In this case these were was a reusable bag and its contents—sealed packages of Oreos, Sun Chips, and grapes— but it could just have easily been a disposable plastic bag, a paper bag, a cardboard box, the flush handle on the toilet, the sink, the floor, or the nearby countertops.”
We keep our reusable bags dry; wash them every couple of weeks and use one-use bags for raw meat.