In the supermarket where we occasionally shop, I picked up a free
brochure containing advice about avoiding bacterial
cross-contamination. It is full of absolutely necessary advice for
those who use animal-derived foods.
Looking through this brochure made me glad that we stopped consuming
any animal products twenty years ago. Even so, I am aware of the
cross-contamination that takes place when vegetables come in contact
with animal-derived bacteria in such places as farms, food-processing
and packaging facilities, supermarkets, restaurants, etc.
In this supermarket brochure there is an interesting point concerning
shopping carts that I had not heard before: “Separate raw meat, poultry
and seafood from other foods in your grocery shopping cart and in your
refrigerator.” However, they make no mention of how you can prevent
contamination from the used shopping carts. What good will it do for
people to separate their raw animal products from other foods in their
carts when others will use the same un-disinfected carts?
I have often thought of the possibility of cross-contamination
occurring at the check-out counters where all sorts of animal products
are placed along with other food products. Years ago when the
supermarket chain had a person asking customers for input on how to
improve their service, I mentioned the possibility of
cross-contamination on check-out counters and suggested they look into
methods of disinfecting them. As far as I can tell, nothing was ever
done about this potential problem.
If I ever thought that I was being overly fussy about the possibility
of cross-contamination, this brochure proves to me that I’ve been on the
right track.
The only way to really avoid this sort of cross-contamination is for
the world to go vegan.
