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These are the cleanest grocery stores in America, survey shows

Nothing will make you drop your cart and run out of a grocery store quite like sticky floors, dingy aisles, and crumbs. Cleanliness is so important that it’s consistently one of the top-rated features (along with bright lights, product selection, and value) that makes us return to a store again and again. So which grocery stores can claim to be the cleanest of them all? Nonprofit consumer group, Consumer Reports’ recently released the findings of a nationwide member survey of grocery stores, supermarkets, and warehouse clubs. More than 75,000 people across 96 stores responded. Criteria included cleanliness of sidewalks and entryways, the number of working hand sanitizer stations and cart wipes available, how quickly spills were wiped up, how often floors were cleaned in general, and the cleanliness of restrooms. Cleanest Grocery Stores The top-ranking grocers include Texas-based regional chain Central Market; the mid-Atlantic’s Wegmans; the Chicago and Ohio area…

Your kitchen towel could be loaded with bacteria, study shows

We were already weary of kitchen sponges, but now we know to look out for kitchen towels, too. Kitchen towels do many duties from wiping to drying, holding hot things and cleaning surfaces. They’re ubiquitous in households around the world, but now we know, those pretty patterns might be hiding some dangerous secrets. A new study from the University of Mauritius reported by the American Society for Microbiology found that family size and type of diet factor into the growth rate of the bacteria on kitchen towels that can lead to food poisoning and other serious infections. Researchers took an up close look at 100 kitchen towels after one month of use and found that 49 percent of the towels contained high levels of bacterial growth. The bacteria count increased with the size of the family and also when children or extended families were present. In households where towels  had more than…

Dirty Dozen: Fruits, vegetables with the most pesticides

Nearly 70 percent of sampled produce was found to have significant pesticide residue, according to a new report by one government agency. The biggest offender? Strawberries. The Environmental Working Group released its 2017 list of the “dirtiest” and “cleanest” items in the produce isle. Strawberries, spinach and nectarines took the top spots of shame, while sweet corn, avocados and pineapples were rated the “cleanest.” At least 178 different pesticides were found on the produce, even after they were washed, and in some instances, peeled. Pesticides have been known to cause a number of health issues, including short-term problems like headaches and digestive troubles to chronic conditions like cancer and endocrine disruption. “Eating plenty of fruits and vegetables is essential no matter how they’re grown, but for the items with the heaviest pesticide loads, we urge shoppers to buy organic,” said Sonya Lunder, an EWG senior analyst. It’s particularly important to reduce young children’s exposures to pesticides, says Lunder. “Even low levels…