The absolutely disgusting fact about the inside of a handbag

How often do you wash your bag?

Once a month? A year?

Or do you wait until it's torn and ripped, until no amount of perfume can mask the odor, and just replace it with a new one?

According to a study by Queen Mary University, faecal bacteria is present on 26 per cent of hands in the UK, 14 per cent of banknotes and 10 per cent of credit cards.

Your hands, banknotes and credit cards all end up, at some point in the day, in your bag.

At best, the inside of your handbag may be saturated with faecal bacteria.

If that isn't bad enough tests carried out by Initial Washroom Hygiene in 2013 found that an innocuous bottle of old hand cream in a handbag contains more bacteria than the average toilet.

Technical Manager Peter Barratt said:

Handbags come into regular contact with our hands and a variety of surfaces, so the risk of transferring different germs onto them is very high, especially as bags are rarely cleaned.

Not only can bacteria grow incredibly fast – doubling every 20 minutes – but Initial has identified that there can be more than 1,000 resident bacteria on your hands...per square centimeter.

Throw out your bags. Throw them out now.

HT: Metro

More: This photo series finds the beauty in dirt

More: There's something freakishly disgusting about this McDonald's Happy Meal