Watch out for hidden germs in supermarkets

You make sure to wash your hands — a lot. Sometimes you even use a sanitizing wash. So it’s no wonder that you think you are protected against germs. Well, think again. Almost every part of our daily life is filled with germs we would rather not know about. Of course, most of us are not dying — or even getting really sick. But some of our belly aches, respiratory infections or cases of diarrhea may be due to germs we didn’t know existed. On the “Today” show’s five-part special series, “Hidden Germs,” we’re looking at the bacteria and mold in our everyday lives.

In this column, I look at one of life’s basics: grocery shopping. You try to buy the freshest fruits and vegetables. You may even be buying organic produce for your family. And you probably go out of your way to buy red, juicy pieces of beef, and milk in containers with date stamps that haven’t expired. You are a smart, responsible shopper — or so you thought. But what happens when the environment you shop in isn’t all that clean?

To find out what kind of germs lurk in supermarkets, we invited Connie Morbach, a microbiologist with Sanit Air, a Troy, Mich.-based company specializing in testing air in homes and commercial properties, to join us in a shopping spree at three stores in New Jersey. With a hidden camera in tow, we grabbed a shopping cart, some swabs, and a few test tubes and followed Morbach as she snooped around the store looking for places where bacteria and other germs like to hang out. We then sent the samples to an independent lab in Michigan. The results were anything but pretty.

The germs we found in the stores usually aren’t serious threats to healthy people. But if someone has a compromised immune system, is elderly, or is quite young, then he could be more susceptible to getting ill. The best advice to prevent getting sick is to always wash your hands after going out in public, and especially before and after you handle food.

Remember that the three supermarkets aren’t necessarily representative of your local store or the grocery store industry at large. The Food Market Institute, a trade association, issued a statement on this subject: “Bacteria are everywhere, including in food stores ... Almost all states [including New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania] require that each food store employ a certified food safety manager ... Supermarkets are cleaned and sanitized throughout the day. Food contact surfaces and equipment are cleaned and sanitized every four hours unless stored under refrigeration; then they are cleaned once every 24 hours. Every food store is regularly inspected by health department officials and a store will not be allowed to operate unless approved by health department inspectors.”

Fruits and vegetables
Those shiny fruits and veggies that look so nice and crisp after being misted with water may not be so clean. Morbach took a look at the irrigation spigots and found that they were black with dirt. Also, most store systems recycle the water, so produce is being sprayed with dirty water. We took water samples and sent them to Morbach's independent testing lab. Are your ready for the results? The irrigation misters were full of bacteria. “Well, it was absolutely disgusting,” Morbach says. “It was coming out of dirty diffusers and it was full of bacteria.”

Not even the organic produce section was exempt from germs. In one store, we found organic broccoli sitting in stagnant water. Any type of stagnant water is not a good sign. We sent a sample to Sanit Air’s lab. And what did we find? The broccoli was in a bath of dangerous bacteria. And remember that run-of-the-mill bacteria that exist in nature can grow — and spread — under favorable conditions.

Meat
Want to hear more? Or are you too disgusted to go on?  If you’re brave, then find out what’s in the meat department, where poultry and beef juices are caked on shelves and pork fat is stuck on the grates. “There were actually pieces of pork that were in the meat case itself,” Morbach says. “And in the poultry case we had meat juices running out of containers.” Once again, she swabbed some samples and sent them to her lab. The results? They found bacteria that can cause infections.

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