Resources for help getting food during quarantine and safe handling of food

I think it depends on what you are cleaning a bit. I wipe down surfaces with thick bleach as from the bottle (bleach these days is much more dilute than forty years ago when it would burn things).
Bleach on hands leaves a nasty smell.

I wash fruit before peeling with soapy water.

Biological washing powder should kill virus.

 

I'm talking about for wiping my shopping as it comes into the house... I leave most of it outside for a few days, but the fresh/frozen thing I have to wipe before putting in fridge/freezer - I have to do it now as i'm bringing each item in - I have to sit on door step & pick up each item individually so may as well wipe it then as do it later - needing twice the effort. & I cant just put in the fridge & wash hands each time after touching it because I get too foggy & confused. I need everything inside my house to be safe to touch. So should I wipe with dilute bleach - say 1:1 (I cant use it neat as the slime will stay on everything, or should I just get very strong soapy water eg 1:1 or 1:2?

 

@JemPD
I don’t know if I’ve posted this before, think I might have but in another thread; about these alcohol wipes. They are Isopropyl alcohol and medical surface wipes and pretty much kill everything. They’re getting increasingly hard to find on eBay but it comes in a 6pack of 120 wipes per pack. Theyre currently available still although I see the price is creeping up. They’re very easy for my mum as we don’t need to make up any solution etc. Just thought I’d post.

We use them for disinfecting all food packages, surfaces, door handles, even hands, Clinell Alcohol wipes (I hadn’t bought from this particular seller before but just got one pack yesterday),

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.co.uk/ulk/itm/164140696036

 

hi @lunarainbows thanks yes you did i have some & use for my phone etc - anything that wont stand getting wet. I have some of those but I don't find them very easy- theyre not very wet, & I noticed when wiping phoen & laptop with them that they miss big bits, I find them quite hard to use so a wash bowl with a little solution in & about 20 microfibre cloths soaked in the solution is what I've gone over to.

 

Ah ok! Yes you’re right they’re not that wet. They smell very very strong though! I don’t do the actual wiping and my mum does I think my mum actually does a double wipe - first with dettol solution. And then with alcohol wipes.

 

OK. We have just done the same - with meths.
I think bleach would be inadvisable. Soapy water might be messy but would probably do well enough. Maybe as strong as you would use for a greasy pan. If the stuff is in sealed bags I might stand them in the sink or a bowl and slosh soapy water around them and leave them standing in it for half an hour or so.

But this is just my thoughts based on what I know about getting rid of contamination in the lab.

 

oh dear, i'm afraid I just did it... the shopping was at the door & I couldn't wait...
Do you mean inadvisable because it wouldn't work or for other considerations? Should I do something else to rectify the situation? am scared now - what would you recommend... it was a small enough amount (11 items total) that if I need to rinse it off & start again, or anything that would make it safe, then I could do.

 

I've been dealing with shopping in plastic/waterproof packaging by running a sinkful of hot water and adding as much washing up liquid as I'd use normally and then washing all the stuff as though it's pots and pans, then rinsing it off, drying it, and only then putting it in the fridge/freezer.

 

the trouble is I cant do that because I cant stand up long enough. And eg packet of bisuits wouldn't be ideal to actually submerge I don't think. I can do the 'washing up' with a few items - eg apples & oranges, but that only takes a few mins. It has to be something i can put a small amount of in a bowl or bucket with lots of cloths... so i can sit on door step with back against the hall wall with a trolley beside me, then I get every item, wipe it & put on the trolley, then stand up & wheel it through to kitchen. waterproof stuff stays out in back garden for few days instead. However if I have made a problematic error with the bleachy cloths then I can rectify as it only a few items & only first time I don't it. Hoping @Jonathan Edwards will advise me.

 

I should have added that I did it in stages for exactly that reason and that it took me ages but I understand that it won't be possible at all for a lot of us. Your adaptation sounds like a good one.

 

Just smell nasty and taint food if not careful. Not to worry!

 

Yes, even us able bodied oldies tend to leave as much as possible to 'mellow' until we actually need to clean it down. The only downside is if one forgets later.

 

oh thank God!
So is meths is less likely to contaminate food than bleach because it evaporates so quick?

So going forward... can I put some really strong washing up liquid solution - what i'd use on a greasy pan- in a bowl with about 10 cloths & wipe everything really well - so they thoroughly wet but not actually submerged, & change cloths regularly(so it's fresh solution) - & then leave to dry naturally - so the solution would be in contact for about an hour before it evaporated- but that's not ideal with frozen items I suppose..... OR to be really safe should I just buy meths & be done with it? I happy to do that if it will be more certain to kill it. I want to be safe above all other considerations.

Sorry for all these questions Jonathan, but when one doesnt understand the chemistry of the thing it's confusing....

 

I blanched my cherry tomatoes and apple today; approx 1 minute at 60 degrees centigrade. I noticed Ian Lipkin said that they were investigating reusing masks by washing them at 56 degrees centigrade [http://www.microbe.tv/twiv/twiv-special-lipkin/]. @Jonathan Edwards any thoughts on blanching versus washing using soap and blanching?

Further thought, if you wipe stuff (food packaging etc.) with 10% bleach then do you rinse immediately or let the bleach sit on the surface for 10 minutes? You can dilute bleach with soapy water --- endless permutations! For those who survive they can do a version of --- in my day --- just like WW2!

EDIT grateful to @Simon M for highlighting (CDC) guidance which states 1 minute in dilute bleach i.e. to kill coronavirus.

 

I honestly don't know what is safest. I like meths because it evaporates and is quick.

 

ok well thanks for your input anyway, it's massively appreciated. I was using isopropyl alcohol 70% on jay cloths until it ran out & couldn't replace. Surely meths be at least as good as that?... isn't it a higher alcohol content... I don't know really understand what methylated means & the difference between isopropyl & methylated. I could google it but my brain is mush now not much good for research.

I also wanted to ask you if you are eating bread? I mean the kind that comes in packet - sliced wholemeal? ditto for cold packaged meat - like ham? wondering if, should it have been coughed on, it likely to be safe by the time I unwrap it, as long as it 3 days since it arrived here - presumably it's not likely to live on bread any longer than on plastic - which I understand is now accepted to be best available evidence saying it 3days?

 

Just a quick warning about using meths... It's very poisonous, don't ever use it directly on food. It's fine on door handles and car handles and stuff like that. It's possibly OK on totally enclosed food wraps, but you need to be absolutely certain that there's no breaks in the wrapping.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denatured_alcohol

 

@JemPD We heat up everything now to a high heat just to be safe. Bread, milk etc. The bread does go a bit funny. Probably don’t need to, but makes me feel less worried incase there’s a tiny chance of it being in the food.

 

I really don't know about these things. I make my own bread. Unsliced bread in a film wrap might be safer. Cold meat - no real idea. We are tending to cook meat well.

 

The CDC (and at least one other source I’ve seen) say that diluting bleach according to the manufacturer's instructions for disinfecting can kill the Coronavirus in one minute. For Domestos, that works out at a dilation of about 25 to 1, according to the Bottle I’ve got.
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/disinfecting-your-home.html

So my plan for plastic contained stuff that goes in the fridge is to get a small bowl of diluted bleach and wipe or dunk milk bottles et cetera for one minute. Rinse off well. Then drain, wipe and put in the fridge. Because the Bleaching step is very quick, it strikes me as doable for a supermarket delivery. But I haven’t put it to the test yet.