Supermarket shopping trolleys ‘are dirtier than toilet door handles’

Last week, Britain reeled from the revelation that some iced coffees contain faecal bacteria, and now we’ve got some more bad hygiene news.

It turns out supermarket shopping trolleys in some chains contain 361 times more bacteria than a toilet door knob.

Three quarters of shopping trolleys tested in the American study had harmful bacteria which could cause food poisoning, such as E Coli and salmonella.

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The results varied between stores – with ‘classic’ grocery shops turning out to be the dirtiest, and posh superstores the cleanest. Although even the best still had three times the level of bacteria on a kitchen counter top.

Just to gross us out even more, researchers from reusable bag company Reusethisbag.com also swabbed refrigerator doors in large retail chains.

They found that a fridge door in a large supermarket contains 18 times as much bacteria as a dog’s chew toy.

Even the fruit and veg you buy are pretty manky – with some containing 746 times as much bacteria as a car steering wheel.