While I am germ conscious I am not a germ-a-phobe. However, I cringe when faced with a filthy conveyor at the check-outs of grocery stores. It would be better to wait briefly while the clerk cleans the conveyence than contaminate my food by resting it on the belt. Most of the dried wet stains are from blood from meat left there to breed bacteria that everyone gets to take home. One store I know of regularly has their egg fridge coated in black mildew and dried broken eggs coating the bottom of the racks. Very poor standards indeed. What is up with this?
— oceanlady
This article appears in Jun 25 – Jul 1, 2009.
That is rather gross
but on a packed day such as sat they prob dont have the time to do so after every customer.
You should consider getting yourself vacuum-sealed so all those nasty belt vermin don’t eat your arms off. Think of it this way – all those dancing little germs will build up your immunities – I’ve yet to read the headline ‘CUSTOMER DIES FROM CONTAMINATED CONVEYOR BELT’.
It’s probably one of the reasons why most people wash their fresh, unwrapped produce before consuming it and everything else comes packaged.
Ocean, I hear that……I am like you… not OCD-germophobe but those belts should be cleaned regularly….also…
I am anal about the scales at the deli..I have some food allergies and sensitivities to certain spices and they NEVER wipe the scale until I ask them to….even the slightest sliver of shell fish juice on my smoked deli meats can put me in the EMERG……
So while no one grocer is more guilty than another why bother putting the nice lil cloths at the entrance for us to wipe our hands and carts with to kill germs….then they try to kill us when we get in….
Oceangal, I agree the belts should be wiped down after each customer. However, the meat you buy does not contain blood. It is water dyed by the flesh. All the blood is extracted at the slaughterhouses.
I found myself in line behind a couple of obvious hippy/anarchist types in the grocery store one day. They proceeded to pull an unbagged loaf of bakery bread from their basket and set it on the conveyor belt. I’m all for saving on bags, but GROSS! You can’t wash bread! To make matters worse, hippy boy then pulled out a vial of patchouli oil and he and hippy girl both stood there slathering themselves in stink while waiting to be rung through. It was really too much.
Fucking Hippies.
Ha, little do they know that they’re no longer vegans based on their meat juice soaked bread.
That’ll learn ’em.
I work at a grocery store and the cashiers are suppose to wipe down their lanes when it’s slow. Though that’s really difficult when it hardly ever is. And sometimes, when there’s an obvious meat spill and you wipe it up before ringing through the next customer, they get impatient with you. You can’t please everyone. 😉
But to avoid this in the first place, there are meat/produce bags set up around the store for customers to use, as well as at the check outs (at Superstores; I can’t speak for other grocery stores).
Too, the customer can just ask the cashier to clean the conveyor belt or whatever, before placing their item(s) down.
As for the mildew egg racks, that’s just plain nasty and unhealthy. The OP should report it at the desk or anyone else whose noticed it. Eck.
I agree it’s very unsanitary to place anything on a dirty conveyor belt. I ask the cashier to clean it first. Sure I get dirty looks from the ppl behind me in line, but who the hell cares eh?
One thing you need to be aware of as well is the bottom of your purse. You don’t want to know what gets stuck to that. I’m not a fanatic about germs, but I do wipe off my purse with diluted Detol at least once a week.
I’m not a fanatic about germs or anything, but if I’m in line and the conveyor belt is dirty, I ask the cashier to clean the belt first. Sure I get some dirty looks and hear some grumbling behind me, but they’ve obviously mistaken me for someone who gives a shit what they think.
Another thing to be aware of is the bottom of your purse. Think about how many places you’ve set it down on. GROSS! Once a week I wash the bottom of my purse with diluted Detol. Same goes for the reusable grocery bags.
Rule of thumb. When you come from the grocery store, or any other outlet that the public uses, always place your bags on the floor – never on your counters or on your bed.
Fuck it is a wonder I am still alive. When I grew up there used to be a guy come by every Friday. He was called teh “meat Guy” (original I know). Anywho..he sold meat out of the back of an enclosed half ton. No refrigeration. He would simply scoop however much hamburger you wanted into some brown paper, cut your steaks, etc..then go down the road to the next customer. I think we just worry too much about such things today.
They clean the conveyor after every shift.
I personally believe that the more germs I expose myself to the stronger my immune system will become, and thus i am on course to live for eternity.
I don’t shop on Saturday or Sunday because of the crowds…besides more usage SHOULD require more cleaning, regardless of the day.
If people have to wait a minute or so while the cleaning occurs, (busy or not- I mean, would you sit at a repeatedly unwiped table at a busy restaurant?)is it not also in their best interest to have a clean space to put their food? There is no valid excuse for not keeping these belts clean.
The egg fridge was reported to the board of health and was investigated but poor follow-up monitoring allows the lazy practices to continue. Most people don’t even notice.
Next time you shop take a moment to look at the refridgerator units, under the shelves and even under the egg cartons.
The issue is not about aversion to germs coming from this filth, it is about standards of business practices and to me, expecting shoppers to buy their food in filthy stores is insulting, disrespectful and just plain bad business practice.
I have a problem with businesses treating customers like this while they rake in their millions every year. Whatever happened to integrity?
Anton, you are partly right. The immune system needs some “practice” to function properly, but a strong immune system can’t keep you from getting sick from ALL pathogens. If you expose yourself to salmonella or E. coli or herpes or HIV, you will likely get sick regardless of how strong you immune system is. We shouldn’t live in a sterile environment, but we certainly shouldn’t live in a filthy one either.
Wash your hands.
I live in the North End, and regularly shop at the Young Street Superstore. I often see the cashiers there cleaning the belts.
On another note, they have a cashier there who has the most high-pitched, squeaky voice I have EVER heard. It makes me want to poke stale breadsticks in my eyes.
You’d be better off sticking them in your ears wouldn’t you? 😛
Good point!
Seriously though, she seems like a genuinely sweet kid, but her voice goes up about six octaves at the end of each sentence. It’s unlike any voice I’ve ever heard.
She is fast though…
Miles, not true. If you’re generally healthy your immune system will likely save your butt on first exposure to HIV, herpes and other bacteria and viruses (limited amounts of the pathogen). Give it a second or ongoing exposure, however, any human immune system will fall under repeated or voluminous exposure.
That’s nothing, OP. You should try buying sushi off the back of some local fisherman’s big pick up truck!
Kind of hard to wipe the belt down when you’re busy and people just keep putting their food on.
Most cashiers do this when they get the chance (I know I did and I saw my co workers do the same), but it’s kind of hard to say “move your shit off the belt so I can wash it”…
If you really have an issue with it, OP, just don’t put your crap on the belt and ask the cashier to wash the belt. Sure they’ll think you’re an asshole, but they’ll do it regardless.
They’re washed more often than you think OP. As for the cases, I once pulled a month-old pork chop out of the bottom of one. But that was in my grocery store days…
Kay, that’s not exactly true either.
Exposing yourself to a pathogen and recovering from that infection generally provides you with immunity against that particular pathogen and makes subsequent exposures less risky, even if that exposure is prolonged or more intense. That’s the principle behind immunizations. The real power of our immune system is the memory it gains through antibody production.
The notion of a “strong” immune system really refers to the ability to mount a good and appropriate antibody response as well as the presence of a good “surveillance” system that can defeat pathogens before the generation of an antibody response. This surveillance system can be strengthened by good diet, exercise and exposure to less-harmful pathogens, but it cannot confer specific resistance to any particular bug, hence my assertion that “a strong immune system can’t keep you from getting sick from ALL pathogens”. Some bugs can get a foot hold no matter how healthy you are and some are more deadly in the presence of a strong immune response (e.g. 1918 influenza).
Miles you are absolutely right!
You really did a great job explaining the ‘why and how’ for inoculations as well.
ITS CALLED PLASTIQUE BAGGIEZZZ.
I wouldn’t be so concerned about dried crap on the belt. First, the actual likelihood that viruses/bacteria are actually still alive on that belt is nominal. Secondly, for the cashier to clean the belt effectively, they would need to apply an antibacterial cleaner to the belt and allow it to set for a minimum of 15 seconds for it to be effective. Not to mention too, the entire belt would need to be cleaned at the same time, and must not come into contact with anything else. People need to realize that cleaning does not equate to sanitary. Sanitation is a whole other different thing. Most cleaning only just moves the bacteria around, and most “sanitizing” is only really effective for a short period of time as the bacteria that exist on the surface just re-populate surprisingly quickly.
Just think being dirty helps you get your daily dose of probiotics. Everyone loves those these days.
What is that saying: clean mud didn’t fatten the pig…….. what I took from it is we all need to eat a lil dirt to be healthy
My immune system is too busy killing my own beta cells to give two shits about foreign pathogens 🙁
I’m a goddamned germ sponge, guys.
Never had the poultry pox though…no immunity against it either thank GOD for the vaccine. That shit’d lick my ass.
I don’t really think this post contributes anything or great value to this thread, but I figure I’d share anyway.