Went to the Subi markets this Sunday. It was humid, noisy, crowded and well, not very pleasant. Perhaps it's just me, I have become a bit of a recluse of late. One thing struck me, and I am probably very slow in this, I know my Mum would have cottoned on, is how unhygienic open food in this environment can be.
Now, anyone who knows me, knows that I am no clean freak, I don't mind 'clean' dirt, I can tolerate camping and flies quite happily. I will eat food and share it with my horse/dog/child. I don't sterilise my kitchen.
But. I do have an aversion to 'people' germs. So back to the markets. All this fruit and vege, on open display, hundreds of people poking and pinching and prodding it while they make their selection. Fine for things like potatoes that will get peeled, or a rock-melon I bought grapes and plums, they looked delicious, and I sat with friends and we picked at them.
But they weren't washed and I wonder how many hands touched them. What germs those hands had on them.
Is this why I have had a stomach upset for days now?
Then there was the open containers of rice, nuts, grains. People stood over them, scooping out contents into bags. One sneeze and there are body fluids in droplets all over the exposed food. The thing I wondered, after years of hell with them, was weevils? This place was a hot bed for the little critters.
I will still drop my bread on the floor at home and claim the 15 second rule, I will still eat yogurt that is 5 days over its use-by date, but I will always just wonder about open food at markets. If there was ever a epidemic, some super virus, then these are the places they would spread.
One more reason to grow my own!
I'm with you, don't like the markets. I wash all my fruit and vegetables and would never buy grains that weren't packed. Then I tell myself that some germs are good for you so you can build up your system. that's why apparently you let babies crawl around on the floor. xxx
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