A grocery store shopper has sparked widespread reevaluation of shopping habits after highlighting a hidden concern: the previous whereabouts of customers’ hands before they touch fresh produce.
New Zealand content creator Brit Cunningham shared in a video that she had an eye-opening moment during a routine stop to pick up dinner ingredients. The more she dwelled on it, the more troubling the thought became.
Cunningham described how she selected vegetables and other items before moving on to the meat aisle to purchase raw chicken.
“Here in Aotearoa, we package it with a plastic tray, place the chicken on top, and then cover it with saran wrap,” she noted.
“It’s not leak-proof. Often, when I pick up the chicken, a bit of sticky raw chicken juice leaks onto my hand,” she added.
The issue goes beyond just the discomfort of the sensation.
She began worrying about customers handling fruit and vegetables with chicken juice on their hands, leaving the next unsuspecting shopper to unknowingly pick up contaminated produce.
‘I looked around for an antiseptic wipe to wipe down the chicken, and wipe down my hands, but there was no wipe,’ she said.
Brit Cunningham has left thousands of people reconsidering their entire grocery routine after pointing out one unsettling problem hiding in plain sight in the meat aisle
‘I’ve got my sticky awkward chicken hands, and I don’t know what to do because I need to push my trolley around and finish my shop.’
Standing in the middle of the supermarket, Cunningham suddenly realised she was unlikely to be the only person dealing with the issue.
‘This is happening to everybody else who comes into the supermarket and wants to buy their chicken,’ she said.
She then imagined a chain reaction many shoppers had apparently never considered before.
‘What happens if that person picks up their chicken, pops it in their trolley and then goes, “Oh, I forgot apples,” and then they go back to the apples and they’re touching all the apples, rifling through to find the ones they want?
‘What happens if I come through and pick up one they didn’t want that has chicken juice on it?’
The video quickly struck a nerve online, with many viewers admitting the thought had genuinely disturbed them.
‘I’ve never thought about this and it’s ruined my day,’ one person commented.
Many said they had already developed elaborate systems to avoid what some dubbed ‘chicken juice hands’
Others said they had already developed elaborate systems to avoid what many dubbed ‘chicken juice hands’.
‘Are there still plastic bags for fruit and vegetables? If so, grab one of these and put your chicken in that. You don’t even have to touch the chicken with your hand,’ one said.
Another wrote: ‘I always start at produce and grab a few extra bags in preparation for the chicken juice scenario. I use the bag to grab my chicken and turn said bag inside out with chicken and juices securely contained.’
Others revealed they now carry sanitiser, freezer bags, or even gloves specifically for supermarket shopping.
‘I carry antiseptic wipes and my own freezer bags,’ one woman explained.
‘Recently I’ve noticed a lot of people wearing gloves to the supermarket and now I’m wondering if this is why,’ another added.
She said the issue dawned on her during an ordinary trip to buy ingredients for dinner – and the more she thought about it, the worse it became
The conversation tapped into broader anxieties many people still carry around hygiene and contamination following the pandemic, particularly in shared public spaces like supermarkets.
It also highlighted the strange contradiction at the centre of modern grocery shopping: consumers are constantly warned about the dangers of raw chicken contamination at home, yet often expected to casually handle leaking meat packaging while pushing trolleys, touching fridge doors and picking through fresh produce in-store.
Food safety experts have long warned that raw chicken can carry harmful bacteria including salmonella and campylobacter, which can spread through cross-contamination if juices come into contact with other surfaces or foods.
At home, many Australians treat raw chicken with near-clinical caution – disinfecting benches, washing hands repeatedly and separating chopping boards.
But in supermarkets, the responsibility often falls back onto shoppers themselves.
‘Our local supermarket has hand sanitiser, but it’s at the entrance,’ one commenter wrote.
‘I’m too paranoid that I pick up meat with a plastic bag, but I’m probably picking up loose fruit and vegetables touched by folks who didn’t.
‘Supermarkets need to up their game.’
