Best practices for grocery shopping during COVID-19

How to shop for groceries during COVID-19 From shopping lists to wiping down surfaces, this is what you should know before you go grocery shopping during the COVID-19 outbreak.

TORONTO — With almost everyone staying indoors and trying to minimize outside contact, grocery shopping is one of the few excursions people are actually making these days. And a doctor from Humber River Hospital is offering some advice to keep you, your family and your food items safe.

First of all, plan who goes shopping carefully, Dr. Leon Rivlin tells CTV News Toronto. According to Rivlin, people who are over the age 60, pregnant women and those with weakened immune systems and chronic health conditions, especially affecting the respiratory system, should avoid going out for groceries. Rivlin says try to pick the healthiest person in the family as your designated grocery shopper.

“And when you do go out, don’t go out as a group. In the past the whole family might go out grocery shopping, but if one person can be the one who does all of the groceries, that would be ideal,” Rivlin said.

Rivlin also recommends bringing along some disinfecting wipes to clean your shopping cart – not just the handle, but any area that may have come into contact with other shoppers which might touch your food.

Plan your shopping list carefully, with enough items to last your household for a week or two, Rivilin says. Minimize the need to go to the grocery store too often.

Also, try and choose wrapped items that can easily be wiped clean with a disinfecting wipe when you get home. Many stores are even stocking fresh produce that is wrapped in clear plastic for protection.

When it comes to cleaning fruits and vegetables, Dr. Rivlin recommends using soap and water, but warns against using bleach, and other strong chemicals, on anything you’ll be eating.

“The shell of the virus itself is highly susceptible to soap and it destroys it, so you don’t have to use anything fancy to destroy the coronavirus. Just soap and water is sufficient.”