Q: With Cuyahoga County’s plastic-bag ban taking effect this year (and already in place at many Giant Eagle stores and other locations), people are starting to use reusable bags. Can reusable bags make you sick, and what are the best ways to keep them clean and free of germs?
A: Reusable bags help the environment, but they could spread food-borne illnesses if they aren’t used, washed and stored correctly. Raw foods placed in reusable bags could cross-contaminate other foods with E. coli, salmonella and listeria.
It gets worse when dirty bags are stuffed inside a hot car trunk, the perfect place for germs to breed.
“You’ve made a petri dish,” said Dr. Neha Vyas, family medicine specialist at the Cleveland Clinic.
Reusable grocery bags are on the minds of Cuyahoga County shoppers because of the county’s ban on single-use plastic bags. The ban went into effect Jan. 1, but it will not be enforced until July 1 to give stores more time to make the transition, said Sheryl Harris, director of the Cuyahoga County Department of Consumer Affairs.
The ban only applies to bags given at the check-out, Harris said. Plastic bags for bulk foods, fresh vegetables and deli items will still be available.
Also exempt are plastic bags used for restaurant leftovers, dry cleaning and newspapers. Paper bags aren’t part of the ban. More details are available at the Cuyahoga County’s plastic bag website, cuyahogacounty.us/byobag
The ban on single-use plastic bags is aimed at reducing the amount of waste going to landfills. More than 319 million plastic bags become waste each year in Cuyahoga County, Harris said in an email. The average time a plastic bag is used is just 12 minutes, but can take up to 1,000 years to decompose, she said.
When stocking up on reusable shopping bags, choose cotton or canvas bags that can tolerate hot water and high dryer heat, said Ryan Sinclair, associate professor of environmental microbiology at Loma Linda University School of Public Health. The heat helps to disinfect the bags, Sinclair said.
Using a disinfectant wipe to quickly clean a bag’s interior isn’t effective in killing germs, he said. The disinfectant wipe would need to be in contact with the bag’s surface for a full two minutes in order to eliminate bacteria, Sinclair explained.
Research shows that dirty reusable grocery bags can spread germs. A 2011 study from scientists at the University of Arizona and Loma Linda University — which Sinclair co-authored — found bacteria in 99% of bags tested. Half carried coliform bacteria while 8% carried E. coli, both indicating fecal contamination. Hand or machine washing was found to reduce the bacteria in bags by more than 99.9%.
A study published in the international journal Food Control in 2019 found high percentages of antibiotic resistant microbes when 30 reusable plastic (polypropylene) bags were analyzed.
Here are tips for food safety and how to clean various types of bags. Information came from Vyas, Sinclair, the American Cleaning Institute, TheSpruce.com, Good Housekeeping and the OSU Extension Cuyahoga County office.
Tips for bag, food safety
Wash bags after each use, especially those used for meats, produce and precooked foods.
Label bags for meat, produce, dairy, canned goods and so on, to cut down on cross-contamination. “We don’t realize having produce and dairy and meat together in bags can be harmful,” Vyas said.
Keep bags for books, sports gear and other non-food items separate from food bags.
Use a cotton or canvas bag as a liner in insulated bags (can’t be machine washed in hot water).
Make sure bags are completely dry before storing them.
Remove any cardboard inserts and turn each bag inside out before washing.
How to clean various bag types
Canvas and Cotton
Machine wash in hot water. Machine or line dry.
Insulated shopping bags
Hand wash in warm water and air dry.
Hemp and nylon
Hand or machine wash on gentle cycle with mild laundry detergent. Line or air dry.
Woven or nonwoven polypropylene These bags are made from recycled plastics. Machine wash on gentle cycle, or hand wash. These bags should never be put in the dryer. Air or line dry.
In her column, patient advocacy writer Julie Washington will answer readers’ questions about navigating health-care systems. (She will not address individual treatments.) Your comments may be published in a future story or column. Send questions and comments for publication — including your name, city and daytime phone number — to jwashington@plaind.com. You can also find Julie on Twitter @JulieEWash.
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