To be fair this is a good idea underdeveloped countries as canned drinks in storage are usually contaminated externally with rat shit.
This is true of warehouses everywhere, not just ones in underdeveloped countries. Developed countries just usually have a higher turnover and distribution closer to production sources, so they sit in storage for less time.
My neighbor died. My 34-year-old coworker died. Those early days of COVID were fucking terrifying.
I tended to get every flu and every diarrhoea even before the pandemic. One day I decided to wash my hands thoroughly after shopping. Then came the pandemic. I am not making this up but I haven't had any sickness for eighth years. No flu, no diarrhoea. I didn't even catch COVID. Just because I started washing my hands a bit more often, around half a dozen times a day.
The eight years since the pandemic really have flown by...
He didn't say he started with COVID, he started 'and then came the pandemic'.
You never take public transport or interact with kids?
That's because people are generally disgusting. I'd have to guess that if you talked to basically edit: ~~anyone~~ any scientist about the best way to reduce illness of any sort, they'd say "just wash your hands properly."
"why not just wipe them with disinfectant wipes?"
"oh, you sweet summer child"
Ugh, I bought 100% alcohol by the gallon and made my own 70% disinfectant spray cause it was easier for me to source a full gallon of industrial alcohol than get a package of Clorox wipes.
I almost forgot that shit!
Do I get any credit for never having done this?
It depends... Did you wear a mask at the store? And have you ever taken Horse Dewormer?
Oh god I forgot about the weirdos and the fucking horse dewormer 🤣
Sadly, no it won't. Because we've royally fucked over the planet for ourselves and things like this will only become more common. Not necessarily exactly this picture, but the age of crisis is well upon us and will only get worse from here. Your grandkids will understand because they're in for much worse.
Maybe we've reached the conclusion of the Fermi paradox. Only that WE won't be sending anything out there anymore.
I have no idea what's going on in this photo.
Washing groceries to avoid getting covid
Which was always overkill because Covid doesn't really transmit by touching contaminated surfaces like the flu does.
But we didn't know that at first. Even the experts had no clue how it transmitted and had to just be like "assume it spreads in all the ways until we can figure out how it spreads." And then of course once they knew people needed to mask, they told people not to mask for a good while. At least in the U.S..
The logic was "medical workers need masks more than anyone else, so we have to tell everyone not to mask to save our reserves of masks." But they didn't say "don't mask to save reserves for medical workers." They said "you don't need to mask." (Fauci himself was saying this knowing full well people needed to mask.)
There was an early scientific paper that suggested the Covid virus was surviving for 5 days on surfaces. Turned out only to be in extremely optimal conditions, but still very sobering
I think I'm going to continue washing apples, cucumbers, things like that.
I was a farmer; you should. Especially potatoes and fruit.
There's not even any dirt on potatoes. They must pressure wash them, (you also don't eat them raw).
I worked in a produce department for a bit and the lettuce definitely had dirt and the occasional bug in it before we trimmed and rinsed it
Lettuce is also the most common vegetable to be infected by salmonella.
I still give them a good rinse and rub with a sponge.
I was doing it before COVID. I don't know who's hands have touched it or where those hands had been prior to touching it. I'm not gonna get fucked up by Typhoid Mary picking her ass and then touching something I plan to eat.
Always wash the dirty dozen!
Well that's pesticides. My list is related to warehouse gunk, rats, people coughing on them, etc.
*PSA: to get rid of pesticides soak in baking soda bath. They break down.
It’s not just pesticides. You can get residual germs from bad agricultural practices, which is why we get E. coli and listeria outbreaks from vegetables.
Ironic that whoever is washing the Pepsi and Cheetos has a much higher risk of dying from heart disease than COVID.
Is this not a healthy breakfast?
Before covid some groceries (mostly fruits/vegetables) lasted 1 week or a little more. After that sometimes 2 or more, just today I cut a pineapple that it's 3 weeks old. I'm going to keep washing them.
And it's really nice to just open the fridge and just bite the apple w/o needing to wash it (again).
I watched a documentary on DWTV about a similiar phenomena in Germany. There was a specific sort of bread, a cheap one, which stood fresh for two weeks if packed well. During the pandemic it suddenly stood fresh for NINE MONTHS. The finder of that bread was some sort of forensic specialist and because during the pandemic crime pretty much vanished he had too much time and explored that phenomena.
So, did they put more chemicals into the bread to keep it more fresh?
Actually, no. wholemeal bread stays due to the acid produced by the leavening during baking which is a natural process. Actually ALL bread stays in theory fresh "forever".
But. If it gets contaminated with fungus spores then those can slowly break up acids in the bread. Well, the final verdict was: Before the pandemic most bakers were so fucking dirty and contaminated that they pretty much only delivered fungus-contaminated bread. During the pandemic though the bakers were required to sanitize their work space and themselves a lot more thorough. And that made the bread free of fungus.
The forensic specialist has kept another bread for over three years now. It is as fresh as the first day. No chemicals involved, just wrapped airtight into a plastic foil.
Glad to know we only get fungal bread
So does that mean sourdough bread lasts longer?
How do you dry things? I've tried pre-washing things before to reduce the friction to cooking, but everything always go bad so much faster because of the extra moisture.
I bought a few metres of calico, because it's a cheap, close weave natural fibre.Cut it into sheets the size of a tea towel with pinking shears (because I'm too lazy to hem anything)
When I wash produce, I lay it out to air dry on the sheets, and I throw a dry sheet into the tub or container I'm storing the veg in to continue wicking moisture.
If I'm in a rush I'll pat dry and rub dry produce that I can, but mostly it's laying it out to air dry, either on the counter or in the fridge itself before going back and putting the dry veg in a proper container.
I'll occasionally swap out the cotton in a container for a fresh dry sheet if the produce in the fridge is getting soggy. Things like lettuce and spinach for example, I'll give them a fresh dry sheet at least once a week and they'll last 2-3 weeks for me.
I tend to wash everything in a weak dilution of vinegar, in my experience that reduces moulding.
I don't have a salad spinner so when I want to spin something dry, I wash it and then put it in a mesh produce bag, go outside, and spin the bag around like a human windmill.
All the calico sheets just get thrown in the wash with all my actual tea towels and kitchen towels. If they get really gross they can be boiled to sterile clean them, or worse case scenario, composted.
The dark days of instacarting groceries and having everything smell like the inside of a smokers car
Yeah, this is disturbing, like what the fuck are you doing??!!
Washing off the 'vid.
Sanitizing groceries to prevent covid.
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