The Major Grocery Store Red Flag We Can't Ignore

Face it — unless you live in a very small town with only one grocery store for miles, you probably have a preferred supermarket. Sometimes, determining our favorite place to buy food is a matter of who keeps the best variety of brands in stock; other times, it has to do with proximity to where we live. Almost unanimously, however, we all try to avoid the "dirty" grocery store. You know the one: it has dingy lighting, muddy footsteps tracked on the linoleum, and a mysterious, fishy odor from the seafood department that permeates the whole front half of the building.

All but the most fastidious humans will generally overlook some deficiencies in our grocery shopping experience. We know, for instance, the fact that produce getting old makes its way to the salad bar. We're aware that the middle of the day isn't the best time to buy apples and bananas, and that they have likely been pawed over by more grubby hands than we'd prefer. In cold and flu season, those grocery baskets are absolutely teeming with germs. It's all part of the real, dirty world. But there is one example of supermarket ickiness that we can't — and shouldn't — overlook, and that's broken or (heaven forbid) missing freezer doors. If a store can't be bothered to keep their freezer doors sealed properly, that means that they probably are overlooking proper cold food handling, and those frozen items on your list are a potential safety risk.

The greenest, most clueless home cooks are still aware that cold food needs to be kept cold, and hot food needs to be kept hot. When temperature ranges dip or rise out of the safe range, you are running the risk of microbial growth and an increased chance of foodborne illness. Ideally, whether you are buying the best or the worst butter brands in the grocery store in terms of reviews, they both should be kept below 40 degrees Fahrenheit. That's for fridge foods: frozen foods should stay below 0 degrees constantly, per the USDA.

Even if the doors to the cold case seem to be properly and tightly sealed, you should be able to identify the signs that your refrigerated or frozen foods have been stored safely. If they are frozen, they should feel hard and cold, with no mush or give indicating partial thawing. Refrigerated foods should not feel sticky or slimy. As is the case with any food, if your cold groceries are giving off a nasty odor, don't buy them. If you suspect that your grocery store is disregarding or overlooking food storage safety, give your local health department a heads-up as soon as possible.