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Nagging Question
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What Is the Best Way to Wash Fruit?Forget the fancy tricks |
Keep it simple. All you need to use is water, says Joellen Feirtag, an associate professor and extension food safety specialist in the University of Minnesota’s Department of Food Science and Nutrition. As for those special fruit washes, they’re “just a waste of money,” she says. “They are not going to do anything different than just regular warm water.” However, warm water will remove the soil better than cold.
You shouldn’t use regular detergents or soaps on your food either, according to the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), because these can leave residues that you wouldn’t want to ingest. But the FSIS does say that rinsing your produce with water “reduces bacteria that may be present. If there is a firm surface, such as on apples or potatoes, the surface can be scrubbed with a brush.”
Finally, Feirtag adds that it’s best to wash your produce right before you intend to use it. If you wash it ahead of time and stick it in the fridge wet and soggy, then it can spoil faster.
Most smooth surfaced fruit, such as apples, pears and even plums are waxed improve curb appeal, and cleaning with plain water just won't do. Water, like everything else, rolls off the waxy surface as intended. I tried using baking soda. It works very nicely for removing the waxy polish and any previous shopper's fingerprints. When I don't feel like getting the BS down, then a little abrasive rubbing with salt helps also.
Thanks! I'm going to start using baking soda!
I never thought of that!
Washing with warm water makes sense. Scrubs add other chemical elements. Keep it simple.
I thought that the primary point of washing fruits and vegetables was to wash off the insecticides and herbicides. I have wondered if just washing under running water did much at all, when you consider hand washing. That is, note how little just rubbing your hands together under running water does to remove ordinary dirt and oil. (You need soap.)
Still, I have also been told that routinely ingesting soap residue, as a result of using it to wash produce, is bad, too.
Then there is the consideration--don"t most crop dusters mix oil with their insecticides so that they stick to the fruit? Will plain water just wash it off? I thought that using oil mixed with insecticide was specifically to prevent rain from washing off the insecticide that the farmer spent a lot of money putting on the fruit in the first place. I'm confused.
The FDA does not currently recommend using soap or detergent. However, some health food stores and markets sell food-safe cleaners to remove oil-based residues that are not entirely water-soluble, such as pesticides, waxy preservatives, and oils from the hands of shoppers who search for the most appealing fruits and vegetables. This consumer education video provides more information about the produce washing controversy: www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKLL6c_WBKM . Has anyone come across any good data about the health consequences of these oil-based residues?