TL
R grocery stores and their food are extreme bacteria hotspots and eating anything from them, even grazing, is not healthy especially for children.
As a rule I
don't. But not due to any ethical reasons (If you see someone shoplifting;
no you didnt!) but more because as someone who has worked in food service professionally in the past, in a grocery store as a butcher, as well as in a factory where chicken is processed I have had a lot of exposure to just how our food is treated from the moment it comes in still alive in some cases to where it ends up on the shelves.
Some of it is pretty gross and if you knew you wouldn't ever look at your food the same way.
But for the most part anything that goes in my cart doesnt go near my face. If it can be washed like a meat, fruit, vegitable, etc. It gets washed. If it's one of the quick and ready hot foods from the Deli I don't even touch those unless they are willing to make it for me fresh and I know it hasnt been sitting under a heat lamp at bellow 165f for thirty-forty minutes.
The best way I can describe it is to picture any unpackaged food as having been touched by hundreds of people with unwashed hands, or having small issues like unseen mould on fruit you don't notice, soft spots, chemical sprays and things you should wash off or notice first. For packaged things understand that most raw foods or perishables havent been washed since the factory and are sitting in their juices for several days as bacteria builds up on the surface level and even the sell by date is just a standard and not a guarentee. While for ready-to-eat foods most time arent actually good to eat when sitting in open air or in a mostly sealed container because bacteria floating around from hundreds of people walking by and coughing/sneezing/farting/sick is contaminating them and you should reheat that food up to 165+ if you intend to eat it.