What's in your shopping bag? Bacteria. (But, hey, it's natural!)

Way to go, all you planet-saving shoppers who've made the switch to reusable bags! But consider: "Reusable" doesn't mean "self-cleaning." 

Researchers at the University of Arizona and Loma Linda University queried shoppers headed into grocery stores in California and Arizona, asking them if they wash those reusable bags. The researchers were likely met with a lot of blank looks. Most shoppers -- 97%, in fact -- reported that they do not regularly, if ever, wash the bags.

Further, three-fourths acknowledged that they don't use separate bags for meats and for vegetables, and about a third said they used the bags for, well, all sorts of things (storing snacks, toting books). You can see where this is going.

The researchers tested 84 of the bags for bacteria. They found whopping amounts in all but one bag, and coliform bacteria (suggesting raw-meat or uncooked-food contamination) in half. And yes, the much-feared E. coli was among them -- in 12% of the bags.

Here's the full report, Assessment of the Potential for Cross Contamination of Food Products by Reusable Shopping Bags. And more on food-borne illness from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The researchers wrote in their discussion of the findings:

"It is estimated that there are about 76,000,000 cases of foodborne illness in the United States every year. Most of these illnesses originate in the home from improper cooking or handling of foods. 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 study, funded by the American Chemistry Council, is being offered up as context in discussions about a California bill, AB 1998, that would ban single-use plastic bags, which -- it must be acknowledged -- do tend to have little potential for bacterial contamination.

But the researchers also assessed the effectiveness of washing the bags. Way to go, researchers! Good news on that front: Machine washing or hand washing reduced bacteria levels to almost nothing. 

-- Tami Dennis

Photo: Visitors to an Earth Day event in Los Angeles carry reusable tote bags. Credit: Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times 

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Comments

[bdelmar]

A ridiculous study paid for by plastic bag manufacturers. Duh -- wash your re-usable bags.

Breaking news: there's bacteria everywhere. On your hands, cell phone, Prada handbag.

[Greg]

Paper, plastic or E.coli (uh I mean reusable)

I don't worry about my bag (I take plastic bags because we have a dog we walk at home ..nuff said) but the fact that 97% aren't washing them makes me worry about being in line behind someone with E. Coli in their bag and then putting my food on the counter and having the bagger touch my food after their bag.

Great first we cant trust or train people to be responsible to handle a plastic bag in public and now we cant trust them to be responsible with a reusable bag in public...so are we sure all of these restrictions are the way to go? Why not just educate people about litter and hygene...

I think this simple closure... "Way to go, researchers! Machine washing or hand washing reduced bacteria levels to almost nothing" misses the obvious ...if we couldn't make people take 5 seconds to stop litter (by putting plastic bag in a bin) do we really think we can make them take 10-15 minutes to wash a bag?

EVERYONE GET READY TO BE REALLY SICK I GUESS! I may even call in to work tomorrow.

[frank bones]

"The study, funded by the American Chemistry Council, is being offered up as context in discussions about a California bill, AB 1998, that would ban single-use plastic bags."
In other words, this is politics-as-usual, funding a "study" that hopes to alarm people into thinking twice about passing a bill that will put a dent in industry profits. So the bags are dirty? So are your jeans! Wash them!
Personally, I can't wait for a ban on single use plastic bags, styrofoam cups, and all the other single-use non-biodegradable CRAP we produce, consume, and puke out into the ocean!

[JHarris1971]

Well it is no surprise to me the lengths that the plastic bag industry will go to in order to kill AB 1998, the Bill presently before the California Senate to ban plastic bags. The Chemistry Council is lobbying on behalf of a toxic billion dollar industry by trying to instill health fears into the people of California. Reusable bags are easily washable. One reusable bag can replace hundreds of plastic bags over the course of its lifetime. An expansion of reusable bag production in the state of California will create thousands of jobs in a green industry that has already provided the state with 1.5 million jobs in the last three decades alone. Cleaning up the plastic bag debris costs our state an estimated $325 million annually.

If we want to talk about health concerns how about we talk about the monumentally disasterous effect that plastic bags have on our environment and thus, on our health and the health of our ecosystems. Plastic bags pollute our environment during their long running degrading by releasing chemicals into the soil and water - a process known as leaching. The plastic particles themselves absorb chemicals including PCB and DDE, a DDT breakdown product. Our wildlife mistake them for food and die from gut obstruction which leads to death by starvation and nutrient deprivation. The production of them releases greenhouse gases and the littering of them across our land, our oceans, and our storm drains causes a myriad of environmental problems. And guess what - we can't wash our plastic bags to eliminate these problems.

[Kim Park]

LOL Cute Greg...society does have an trend towards missing the obvious.

So for every bag we see leaving the store we now can picture an evil twin reusable bag with E. Coli...kind of like the spy v. spy of bags (sorry hope not copy infringement)

Makes you wonder if you can return your bag to the store and get a refund..."I bought this three weeks ago and it is defective because it keeps making me sick...wait the instructions never said I had to wash it Mr. "Safe"way."

[Ken_D]

"The study, funded by the American Chemistry Council, is being offered up as context in discussions about a California bill, AB 1998, that would ban single-use plastic bags...."

FACT, FYI: The American Chemistry Council is NOT and independent group of scientists, if that's what anyone thinks. The American Chemistry Council is a professional organization and lobbying group for the plastics industry.

[Joy, Sacramento]

I don't wash my re-usable bags, and don't instend to start. However, I DO wash all unwrapped food that I purchase, typically fresh produce -- including produce that I peel. Melons, bananas -- if it's not wrapped, I wash it -- and always washed it when I used plastic bags. You're nuts if you DON'T wash your food. Plastic bag manufacturers are totally without conscience. They will use scare-mongering (such as this study) and have their lawyers start splitting hairs as to which plastic bags should be banned -- and insist on definitions of "plastic bag" so they can find loopholes and keep making the bags. They don't care about bacteria, they don't care if the environment is totally trashed. The only thing they want is your money. Re-use your bags, and wash your food.

[Belinda Smith]

LA Times, you can do better.

[wasko]

YOU dont wash YOUR bags YOU get sick. Why do I need to care about what others do to themselves?

[2WaskofromHeathertheNurse]

"YOU dont wash YOUR bags YOU get sick. Why do I need to care about what others do to themselves?"

Don't Forget

YOU put on the counter, CASHIER touches bag. WE arrive 2 minutes later put OUR food on counter and CASHIER touches OUR food so WE all get sick be cause of "YOU" (Apperently Joy Too)

--Just using caps in style not intended yell...but it does piggyback on your discussion. Please wash your bags or just use the bags in the store people.

[Whatever]

I actually do wash my bags. And clean anything I bring in from the store. It is called "common sense". It is also common sense to avoid plastic bags, as anybody who has ever taken part in neighborhood/park/nature cleanup knows - those bags are found everywhere.

The plastic industry fights against us and the environment using any trick they can find. The above article is another proof.

Bacteria is found everywhere, and a little of it keeps our immune system in good shape. No need to panic and start spraying antibacterial solutions on everything, as other industries are trying to compel us to do. That only results in stronger bacteria.

[Concerned Citizen]

Of course the plastic bag industry funded the research under the innocuous name of The American Chemical Council, formerly known as the American Plastics Council, the Center for the Polyurethanes Industry and the Chlorine Chemistry Council. What bunk!

Reusable bags have as much bacteria as the plastic bags in the store. Even the packages containing food have bacteria on it. Let's not bend to the Plastics industry scare tactics. It is highly likely that the packages of raw chicken are teaming with E-coli. Yet the Plastic industry isn't going to tell you that.

If you don't want to wash your reusable bag, here is a solution. Hang it up, preferably in the sunlight. Let it dry. Bacteria, particularly E-coli dies in sunlight and without moisture. You won't need to wash your bag. Don't let the plastics industry scare you.

[JP]

Doesn't use of water and detergents to wash the reusable bag negate the environmental benefits of using the bags?

[Baffled Observer]

I don't eat, or buy, meat. And I consider the inside of my bags just as clean as the environment of the market, which involves all sorts of people handling the produce, things being dropped on the floor, etc.

The truth is, a great deal of food poisoning risk comes from eating dead animals, which is fine for buzzards but a bit problematical for the rest of us.

[pril]

yeah I wash my bags, because they get used for a lot more than carrying groceries around. Throw em in with a load of laundry once a month or so, big deal.

[julie]

Here's a better subject for a study: Checking for bacteria in shopping carts where kids stand with shoes on, or sit (with shoes on). Yes, these are the shopping cart baskets where other people's groceries go long after the child is out of the basket.

[shikle]

Could someone please tell the California legislature or it may to too late - they may have already forbidden bags

[Too Much All Around]

Torn between the death sentence of reusable bag bacteria and the guilt of plastic I have elected to use mental powers to simply levitate my food all of the way home. Environmental proponents (AB 1998 supporters / plastic haters) and Germaphobes (Big Chemistry / cloth haters )...HA HA tell me how I am wrong now!

I dont need a nanny and I dont need compelling fear, I am a grown man.

[contraryjim]

The unintended consequences of "doing good" is seldom a concern of the PC crowd. It is the intent that counts????

[James Woods]

This is very interesting and something I never gave any thought to. Most of the greenies that have these bags & priuses are surely as dirty themselves as the bags they carry.

Alot of people don't realize that often times when they are sick it may be related to cross contamination right in their own kitchen or perhaps food they recently purchased.

Food safety standards aren't followed in restaurants, we all know this. I live in Pennsylvania and the food standards for restaurants when I worked in the industry (10+ years ago) stated handsoap was not permitted in kitchen areas. So if you wished to wash your hands you had to walk half a mile to the restroom, needless to say nobody was doing that.

Most of us kept soap hidden to wash our hands. The fear was getting soap in with the food but I dunno about you, i'd rather eat soap than bacteria.

[Bob Tussey Merced California]

The idiot do gooders. If we wash these bags in hot soapy water and dry them, how much water will we waste? How much energy will we consume doing it? They never think past the end of their nose.
Now for real energy saving go naked whenever weather permits. Save water and energy. For those Hollywood types with all the dry cleaning look at the savings and not sending all those cleaning agents into the world.
Why do we need cloths God or creation gave us skin so use it just like the animals do. You won't see an animal wearing a dress even if they are walking up the red carpet.
And talk about a motivation to exercise and eat less.

[CAMERON CHILDERS]

All you "environmentalists" don't forget that the mass washing of bags produces mass amounts of polluting detergents. Is this wonderful new reusing campaign a "wash"??

[Ahksehl83]

Hey, GEE! I HAVE A GREAT IDEA! Why not have the markets provide DISPOSABLE bags!!!! They could cost only pennies each! And they would assure a sanitary bag every time! WOW! Wouldn't that be GREAT!

[Ahksehl83]

We have a president that stood by and not only did NOTHING about the oil well disaster in the gulf, he PREVENTED others from doing things that would have helped. He refused to let other nations boats skim the oil slick off the water .Oil floats, remember? It doesn't "mix" with water, it stays separate and is easily skimmed off. Two months and he STILL hasn't eased the Jones Act! Then he has his coast guard goons prevent American ships from doing the same. Now all o the crazy enviros that voted for this guy are trying to tell us that plastic shopping bags are an environmental disaster. Are you kidding? You are concerned about a plastic bag in landfill meanwhile the gulf is being PURPOSEFULLY destroyed ("never let a crisis go to waste") and you don't call for this impostor of a presidents resignation. That is called being mentally disturbed.

[Ahksehl83]

Does it really matter who funded this study? Do bacteria only show up when a plastic company funds a study?Do those who claim this study isn't valid have another study by another group that shows there is no bacteria? I for one think it is just common sense that if one carries meat in a bag that is reused without washing then there will be bacteria in the bag. It's called "cross contamination" and there are laws that regulate the food service industry that actually make this illegal.. This study just confirms what common sense tells us. I say we owe these plastic companies a big thank you. Yeah, they may have funded a study, because they know their product is genuinely useful and they know the dangers of reusable bags. What's wrong with them offering proof?OK, they funded the study, that doesn't change the fact that the reusable bags are lousy with dangerous bacteria.