The Spread of a Norovirus Surrogate via Reusable Grocery Bags in a Grocery Supermarket

The conventional supermarket represents an important public access to a wide variety of food that is vital for healthy families. The supermarket is also a location where food, the public, and pathogens can meet. The purpose of this study was to develop and test a hypothesized norovirus transmission pathway via reusable grocery bags (RGBs) within a conventional grocery supermarket. An RGB was inoculated with a surrogate virus to assess potential transport of pathogens within a grocery store. Volunteer shoppers were given an RGB sprayed with a surrogate (bacteriophage MS2) upon entry to a grocery store. A surrogate is defined in this study as an organism, particle, or substance that is used to study the fate and transport of a pathogen in a specific environment (Sinclair, Rose, Hashsham, Gerba, & Haas, 2012). The study personnel swabbed all surfaces touched by the volunteer shopper to recover the MS2 surrogate. The data show that MS2 spread to all surfaces touched by the shopper; the highest concentration occurred on the shopper's hands, the checkout stand, and the clerk's hands. The high concentration of MS2 on hands justify a recommendation for in-store hand hygiene as a primary preventive measure against transmission of infectious pathogens. The high concentrations on the checkout stand justify a secondary recommendation for surface disinfection and public education about washing RGBs.