# Do you wash food with Soap? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 8, 2025, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-wash-food-with-soap/1023771 "2025-10-08T06:38:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2025, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-wash-food-with-soap/1023771/61 "2025-10-09T15:07:16Z")
I’ve watched many of the How It’s Made videos along with others that show production processes and they often show the processing of fresh fruit and vegetables, to reject ones that don’t meet standards and sort them by size and quality. Those videos often show cleaning and washing as part of the process. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2025, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-wash-food-with-soap/1023771/62 "2025-10-09T15:19:02Z")
Yup. Now as @Broomstick & @thorny_locust point out, that processing step doesn’t apply to produce you grow or pick yourself or buy direct from a local farmer. Which isn’t an issue for me, but may be for some folks. And as pointed out by @thorny_locust, all the washing in the world, using whatever agents you may choose, isn’t going to do anything to reduce any systemic pesticide load your produce may carry. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2025, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-wash-food-with-soap/1023771/63 "2025-10-09T15:21:28Z")
Well, if you’re growing your own produce, I would hope you’re either not using pesticides or if you are, that it’s appropriate for edible food. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2025, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-wash-food-with-soap/1023771/64 "2025-10-09T15:24:30Z")
The regulations on commercial pesticide use are fairly stringent. Anyway, i wash produce to remove dirt and animal poop and pee. I doubt i can do anything about pesticide residue. ---
**Author:** ![Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/half_man_half_wit/32/21766_2.png) [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Half_Man_Half_Wit)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2025, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-wash-food-with-soap/1023771/65 "2025-10-09T15:48:15Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > In my own more devil-may-care estimation, the upstream processing before it gets to my local store must be adequate. Both because the evidence is that the public isn’t being sickened by poisons supposedly adhering to food Yes, the ‘we’re not all dying’-argument. I remember hearing it first on QI, when Stephen Fry brought up the old tidbit of how a wooden cutting board has more germs than the toilet seat (or something like that), and David Mitchell just piped up with ‘Well obviously, then that means _that’s fine_’. It’s a really useful thing to have in one’s toolbox against the latest ‘there are things with names I can’t pronounce in our food, therefore it’s bad’-type scare. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2025, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-wash-food-with-soap/1023771/66 "2025-10-09T15:56:21Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > Soap is a lathering agent. My understandiing is soap molecules have two sides…one that attaches to oils and the other water which means it is good at removing oil from hands and hair and so on. I am not sure this is useful with vegetables. The soap is not really doing much. Just rinse the food in water, maybe get a cheap veggie scrub-brush to remove some wax and/or get some stuff that is hanging on a little hard and you should be fine. Evidence? Pretty much everyone in the US. If there was a problem with properly cleaning our food we’d know about it. Sure, there is an occasional story of someone who didn’t and got poisoned or a disease but it is pretty rare. Just use basic hygiene. Wash your fruits and veg under cold water. Maybe give them a scrub. A few items like leeks might need a little more attention. Chances are you will be fine. IANADoctor. This is the internet…don’t sue me. I am not pretending to be an expert. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2025, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-wash-food-with-soap/1023771/67 "2025-10-09T17:00:52Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > My understandiing is soap molecules have two sides…one that attaches to oils and the other water which means it is good at removing oil from hands and hair and so on. > > I am not sure this is useful with vegetables. The soap is not really doing much. It’s good at making oil and water mix, which is good for removing oily residue from anything, including vegetables. It’s also good at killing viruses and detaching bacteria from whatever they are stuck to. Yes, it’s probably helpful for removing bacteria from veggies. This study compared hanging with soap and water, to washing with water only, to no washing: > **[The Effect of Handwashing with Water or Soap on Bacterial Contamination of Hands](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3037063/)** > > Handwashing is thought to be effective for the prevention of transmission of diarrhoea pathogens. However it is not conclusive that handwashing with soap is more effective at reducing contamination with bacteria associated with diarrhoea than using... > [Table 1](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3037063/#t1-ijerph-08-00097) shows the different organisms isolated in the three study arms. _Enterococcus_ spp. were the most common bacteria found, followed by _Enterobacter_ spp. [Figure 1](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3037063/#f1-ijerph-08-00097) shows the effect of handwashing with soap or water only on contamination, compared to no handwashing. Overall, handwashing with water alone reduced the prevalence of bacteria substantially. Handwashing with soap was more effective in reducing the prevalence of contamination and specifically of _Enterococcus_ spp. There was a trend that handwashing with soap was also more effective in reducing the prevalence of other species and of multiple isolates, but the statistical support was low ([Figure 1](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3037063/#f1-ijerph-08-00097)) The statistical support for reduction in other bacteria was probably low because there weren’t a lot of other bacteria before washing. The charts show pretty consistent reductions. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2025, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-wash-food-with-soap/1023771/68 "2025-10-09T17:21:13Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > Also, my mom went to a bunch of dinner parties, and she said all the parents talked about the stomach bugs their kids had, in the same way that American parents talk about the sniffles and coughs their kids have. Very funny and absolutely true. My son came to visit us in Mali and after having dinner at a friend’s home he asked us if everyone talks about shit at dinner. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-wash-food-with-soap/1023771.md?page=3)