Safe Grocery Shopping during COVID-19

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This blog provides best practices to help your household think of ways to meet your food needs while reducing and eliminating exposure to COVID-19 and other foodborne risks.  Keep in mind that maintaining good personal and home hygiene, safe food handling, and social distancing is very important when you are planning to shop for food.  Before your next grocery purchase, review the following tips. 

Step 1: What are your food shopping options? Healthy or not, you may choose to use other food shopping methods to keep socially distant from others, such as online shopping or apps. 

• Online shopping is one option.  You can keep current on your latest options by visiting:  SNAP-Ed Online purchasing
• Grocery store curbside pickup/deliveries.
• Buying from local farms. Use http://marylandsbest.net/ to find: 
• local farmers markets
• community supported agriculture (CSA)
• farm-home delivery services
• roadside stands 
• pick your own farms or U-pick-where you go and pick your produce

Step 2: When leaving your home to shop for food: Call or visit the store’s website to see if they have updates related to customer expectations, such as not bringing your own bag to the store or special hours for seniors or immuno-compromised individuals for example. You may also find updates as to how the store is maintaining safety during the pandemic.

Before you go, you will want to plan ahead: 

• Plan meals for the week by visiting our website  https://www.eatsmart.umd.edu/recipes for great ideas the whole family will enjoy.
• Write a shopping list of items you will need for at least a week to reduce how often you need to leave home. This will help you to get in and out of the store quickly.  Also, remember that buying frozen, canned, and dried produce can still be part of a healthy diet, and extend the time between food shopping trips.
• Know who is going shopping-If possible, send one healthy household member to shop.
• Wear a facemask in the store-If you do not have access to a disposable or cloth facemask, see if the store may provide one. Learn how to make your own facemask at home and how to wear it correctly. 
• Keep hand sanitizer with you-If you are not able to wash your hands, use at least 60% alcohol-based hand sanitizer before and after shopping. Your alcohol-based hand sanitizer works best when you use a dime-size amount, and your hands are 100% dry after using it.
• Limit your cell phone use-Reduce your need to use your cell phone when shopping because cell phones are known to carry germs.

Step 3: Be safe while you are shopping: 

• Use & throw out disinfecting wipes- Use the provided disinfectant wipes, to wipe down shopping cart handles. Make sure you throw out the wipes in the trash, and do NOT leave wipes in the shopping cart.
• Think about what your hands will touch-Try not to touch your face, hair, glasses, mouth, eyes, and phone when shopping.
• Follow signs-to keep 6 feet-socially distant from other shoppers and employees, as well as following the expected customer path to the checkout counter.
• Only touch what you take-Be considerate of the people who also want to touch low-handled foods. For example, reduce how many bananas you will touch before grabbing the perfect bunch of bananas.
• Use plastic bags-to bag fresh produce, as well as meat, poultry, and fish.
• Be prepared for delays-If a store limits the number of shoppers. Plan for extra time to food shop, but try not to hold up others when deciding on two different brands of the same food item. 

Step 4: Handling food items safely at home:  Food and food packaging has NOT been identified as a source of transmitting COVID-19. Store food as you would normally, but throw out the plastic or paper bag grocery bag, and wash your hands when you are done putting groceries away.


More questions about food safety and COVID-19? Visit: https://extension.umd.edu/foodsafety