Shopping online could be better for your health, according to new research by parcel service Pass My Parcel. The research found that items bought in store contained more bacteria than comparable products bought online.
Pass My Parcel did an experiment with four items; a t-shirt, toy car, console game and a chocolate selection box. Each of which were purchased both in store and online via delivery to use for the comparisons. The item was swabbed using agar filled petri dishes, and samples were left to thrive for a duration of five days, before being analysed and compared.
The results showed that the in-store products contained the most bacteria; this was the case for the t-shirt, toy car, and video game. The only exception was the selection box, where the delivered package gathered the most germs.
Out of all the samples, the three items with the most bacteria were the console game bought in store; the t-shirt bought in store, and the packaging for the delivered selection box. The three cleanest items with the least germs were the delivered t-shirt, the delivered selection box, and the packaging for the console game.
“The results were very revealing, as it showed us that the Christmas gifts bought in store were generally the items that contained the most bacteria,” said Nick Russell, digital marketing manager, Pass My Parcel. “This result is potentially due to the increased footfall and multiple customers handling products in store, especially during the festive period.
“A layer of packaging seemed to protect delivered items, and meant that they carried less bacteria than the items left on the shelves in store, where shoppers are free to touch and pick items up.”
