Dangerous supermarkets brimming with bacteria worse than in your toilet! 

The most disheartening part about these bacteria levels? They’re teeming with a type of germ known as gram-positive cocci, which is associated with strep throat, staph and skin infections, pneumonia, and blood poisoning.

According to Business Insiders, going to the grocery store is one of the dirtiest, disease-ridden things you can do in modern life. For example, budget grocery store shopping carts have 270 times more bacteria than your toilet handle. Traditional grocery store shopping carts have 361 times more bacteria than a bathroom door knob. 75% of germs identified in grocery shopping carts were harmful. And superstore fridge doors have 1,235 times more bacteria than the surface of your cell phone!

You May Want To Start Wearing Gloves To The Grocery Store–Here’s Why

Source Wochit News

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Your supermarket is filled with germs — here are 7 facts that will make you dread grocery shopping

We all know to wash our hands after going to the bathroom, and to de-sanitize our keyboard regularly, but there’s one place germs are hiding that we can’t easily control: the grocery store. 

Think about it: You share shopping carts with strangers and pick up unwrapped produce that’s been inspected by dozens of unseen hands. 

Reusethisbag.com, an online retailer for reusable shopping bags, recently released the results of a study in which they — in conjunction with EMLab P&K in Ohio — surveyed the bacteria levels at more than 100 grocery stores of varying sizes and price levels in 10 states across America. The survey covered New York, California, Texas, Florida, and Maine.

Lab workers spent months swabbing surfaces of shopping carts, refrigerator doors, and produce, and found some startling results: the dangerous bacteria count in traditional, budget, and upscale grocery stores was higher than in your bathroom, on the surface of your phone, or even at the bottom of Fido’s food bowl.  A budget grocery store cart has 8,112 bacteria colonies per square inch, while a toilet handle only has 30 bacteria colonies per square inch.  Traditional grocery stores were by far the worst offenders when it came to dirty shopping carts. Their bacteria levels were almost 10 times the amount found at budget grocery stores, and 80 percent of the bacteria types found were considered harmful, antibiotic-immune, and could cause illnesses in humans.  Overall, 75% of the grocery cart swabs tested at each of the 100 stores tested positive for a bacteria type known as “gram-negative rods,” which are harmful to humans in 90% of cases.  

It’s hard to avoid refrigerator doors in grocery stores, but if you go to large superstores where you can buy groceries in bulk,  you’ll be hit with the highest levels of bacteria in the refrigerated section.

Superstores were found to have 33,340 bacteria colonies per square inch on fridge doors, as compared to the 27 colonies per square inch found on the average cell phone surface.  The most disheartening part about these bacteria levels? They’re teeming with a type of germ known as gram-positive cocci, which is associated with strep throat, staph and skin infections, pneumonia, and blood poisoning. Surprisingly, produce found at upscale grocery stores tested positive for 30 times the amount of bacteria colonies, possibly due to reduced pesticide usage in organic fruits and vegetables. Budget grocery stores have, by far, the highest amount of harmful bacteria, with 5,666,667 bacteria colonies per square inch — they are three times dirtier than your average toothbrush container.