More Food Safety Tips – Grocery Shopping

Originally published in Grow With Nutrition by Jane Dummer.

• Plan your grocery shopping to take advantage of the coolest parts of the day such as first thing in the morning, or during the evening hours.
• When doing a number of errands, always be sure that grocery shopping is the last stop before heading home.
• If using re-usable grocery bags, remember which one you used to hold the meat products and be sure to wash it at home between grocery shopping trips, and before using it again.
• Select all your non-perishable items first, next select your frozen items, then refrigerated items and finally the perishable non-refrigerated items last. When you think about the average shopper spending 30-45 minutes in a store, shopping this way will reduce the time your perishable items spend in the temperature danger zone (4 °C to 60 °C).
• Use insulated bags with good closures (velcro or zipped) for perishable foods like meat products. This will help keep them at a lower temperature while in the car.
• Keep your frozen foods together in the same insulated bag and the refrigerated items together in another insulated bag.
• Don’t pack your groceries into the car’s trunk since this is the hottest part of your car on a summer’s day. Stow your grocery bags on the floor, in the passenger area, out of direct sunlight if possible.
• Once you arrive home, transport the grocery bags into the house quickly and store the perishable foods in the fridge or freezer as soon as possible.

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