# I rarely wash fruits and veggies before consuming them. **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 25, 2010, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-rarely-wash-fruits-and-veggies-before-consuming-them/537331 "2010-04-25T20:34:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![TimeWinder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bcef8e/32.png) [@TimeWinder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TimeWinder)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2010, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-rarely-wash-fruits-and-veggies-before-consuming-them/537331/41 "2010-04-26T18:26:36Z")
I’m not sure exactly what you’re asking “Why” to, but basically it’s because organic farming allows certain (typically older) pesticides to be used and still call the resulting product “organic.” Some farmers choose to forgo all pesticides, but the resulting waste levels make that infeasible for most medium/large scale operations. But again, this doesn’t really matter one way or the other, since there’s little evidence that commercially available pesticides (as opposed to pathogens, which are as prevalent in organic food as any other) are causing negative health effects to consumers, anyway. ---
**Author:** ![lazybratsche](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ba8739/32.png) [@lazybratsche](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lazybratsche)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2010, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-rarely-wash-fruits-and-veggies-before-consuming-them/537331/42 "2010-04-26T18:42:11Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > I don’t think that’s true. Some of the more common garden insecticides are applied in emulsion with water - but that’s not the same as the active ingredients being soluble or washable (not to mention that they often claim that rain won’t wash them off quickly) Ignorance fought. I went a bit to fast from thinking “all pesticides are sprayed as a liquid” to concluding “all pesticides are water soluble”. > [@fifty-six](#): > > I have not come across any RULES about washing produce except for having a separate washing sink in some kitchens to avoid adding contaminates during the washing process. > I worked in over 20 restaurants. Certain things get washed some things no so much. In the absence of more direct evidence, this is telling. The restaurant industry does NOT fuck around with food safety (at least officially – there will always be sloppy or lazy individual examples). > [@TimeWinder](#): > > But again, this doesn’t really matter one way or the other, since there’s little evidence that commercially available pesticides (as opposed to pathogens, which are as prevalent in organic food as any other) are causing negative health effects to consumers, anyway. Yeah, I’ve been trying to google up a case of pesticide poisoning at the consumer end of the chain, but to no avail. I though I had some vague recollection of some case, but I can’t find it, so I’m probably misremembering. I have found lots of cases of acute poisoning, but the victims have almost always been the people spraying the pesticide or [other agricultural workers](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18666136). ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2010, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-rarely-wash-fruits-and-veggies-before-consuming-them/537331/43 "2010-04-26T21:30:45Z")
Would gamma radiation of food solve this problem? I read that irradiation of foods (meats, vegetables) kills bacteria and viruses very effectively-yet we still don’t have it-why? ---
**Author:** ![Palo\_Verde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/65b543/32.png) [@Palo\_Verde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Palo_Verde)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2010, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-rarely-wash-fruits-and-veggies-before-consuming-them/537331/44 "2010-04-26T21:57:37Z")
Count me in amongst those who don’t wash their fruits or veggies. No ill effects either. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2010, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-rarely-wash-fruits-and-veggies-before-consuming-them/537331/45 "2010-04-26T22:52:50Z")
I worked at Safeway for 12 years, several of them in produce, the last 5 receiving trucks at night. You have no idea how often the overloaded pallets topple over in the truck and scatter produce all over the floor of the truck bed. Other times it would topple over in the process of putting the pallets into the produce cooler, scattering produce all over the back room floor. You know what we did when this happened? Picked everything up and chucked it back in the appropriate boxes. Truck beds and the back room of grocery stores are disgusting. The back room floor rarely gets cleaned, and the floor of the back of those trucks was always the nastiest thing ever because they get used for produce _ **and** _ dairy and they never get cleaned. Just because you’re not getting sick doesn’t mean you’re not eating dirty food. It only takes one time… ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2010, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-rarely-wash-fruits-and-veggies-before-consuming-them/537331/46 "2010-04-27T00:16:37Z")
> [@TimeWinder](#): > > All food is made up of chemicals, No kidding. Obviously I was using “chemicals” in the colloquial sense of man-made chemicals which are applied to the food (fertilizers, pesticides, and in the case of animal foods, hormones, antibiotics and disinfectants). > [@TimeWinder](#): > > and organic food [is not pesticide-free](http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/organic.html), nor are most of the claims made about it true (same link). Some the points mentioned in your link have to do with the inadequacy of the federal “organic” standard, not the merits of organic agriculture per se. But if there’s to be an extended discussion of the merits of organics, this won’t be the thread I do it in–the OP was about produce, and you’ll notice my point was that eating a lot of fresh produce (conventional _or_ organic) was the most important thing. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2010, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-rarely-wash-fruits-and-veggies-before-consuming-them/537331/47 "2010-04-27T00:21:48Z")
> [@TimeWinder](#): > > I can’t find a reliable cite of _anyone_ ever dying or becoming ill from pesticides on their food Well, I can personally testify to having become sick for a few hours as a result of eating a very small handful of Maine blueberries in the field. (The same fields’ berries, after good washing, were eaten by myself and many others with no ill effect.) ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2010, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-rarely-wash-fruits-and-veggies-before-consuming-them/537331/48 "2010-04-27T00:58:49Z")
> [@DCnDC](#): > > Truck beds and the back room of grocery stores are disgusting. The back room floor rarely gets cleaned, and the floor of the back of those trucks was always the nastiest thing ever because they get used for produce _ **and** _ dairy and they never get cleaned. > > Just because you’re not getting sick doesn’t mean you’re not eating dirty food. It only takes one time… And you think a quick rinse under cold water undisgustifies it? ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2010, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-rarely-wash-fruits-and-veggies-before-consuming-them/537331/49 "2010-04-27T01:03:16Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > Would gamma radiation of food solve this problem? > I read that irradiation of foods (meats, vegetables) kills bacteria and viruses very effectively-yet we still don’t have it-why? Because the price of a Mr. Fission[sup]®[/sup] is still too steep for most kitchens? ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2010, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-rarely-wash-fruits-and-veggies-before-consuming-them/537331/50 "2010-04-27T01:14:40Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > And you think a quick rinse under cold water undisgustifies it? Yes. ---
**Author:** ![Pessor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/439d5e/32.png) [@Pessor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pessor)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2010, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-rarely-wash-fruits-and-veggies-before-consuming-them/537331/51 "2010-04-27T02:04:36Z")
I lived below a guy who went to a local community college for nursing. This gets a little graphic, but he put light the fact that “people will give and receive oral sex before eating an M&M off their own kitchen floor”. I cater, bartend, and cook for a tiny family. I use copious amounts of solvents and fake rinse stuff including my hands all the time. I’m pretty sure I’m not saving any lives by rinsing my hands with tepid water when I go from the mushrooms to the limes on the margaritas, then _OOPS_ licked the spoon when I tasted the sauce. I do enjoy this thread, but in 24 years of restaurant management, everyone opposed here would be bummed out to experience a restaurant from behind. Picture a waitress bussing a table using her long fingers to clear a vacated table of six pieces of glasswear. Yum. Then she adjusts your Chicken Sandwich on it’s plate to look pretty for you. Yum. I’ll take 100 year old dead worms over today’s snots and drool. Give it a rinse, move on, hope to be old!!! ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2010, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-rarely-wash-fruits-and-veggies-before-consuming-them/537331/52 "2010-04-27T07:25:04Z")
> [@spark240](#): > > Well, I can personally testify to having become sick for a few hours as a result of eating a very small handful of Maine blueberries in the field. (The same fields’ berries, after good washing, were eaten by myself and many others with no ill effect.) What do you suppose was the cause? Couldn’t it even have been your own hands that contaminated them? Did you eat nothing else that day that could be suspect? ---
**Author:** ![rhubarbarin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eb9ed0/32.png) [@rhubarbarin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rhubarbarin)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2010, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-rarely-wash-fruits-and-veggies-before-consuming-them/537331/53 "2010-04-27T15:04:19Z")
I scrub my fruits and veggies pretty seriously (I use a little dish soap on those with a hard skin). Pee, e.coli, or people having wiped their boogies on them does not bother me. Possible chemical residues are my concern. They won’t make you puke, but they do build up in the body over time and aren’t a good thing. ---
**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:** [April 27, 2010, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-rarely-wash-fruits-and-veggies-before-consuming-them/537331/54 "2010-04-27T16:47:15Z")
A lot of those containers of berries that you buy at the market specifically tell you on the label to wash before using. Produce that has a lot of nooks and crannies ought to be washed, which includes berries and leafie vegetables. I always peel off the outer layer(s) of a lettuce head and discard it. ---
**Author:** ![TimeWinder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bcef8e/32.png) [@TimeWinder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TimeWinder)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2010, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-rarely-wash-fruits-and-veggies-before-consuming-them/537331/55 "2010-04-27T21:58:26Z")
> [@rhubarbarin](#): > > IPee, e.coli, or people having wiped their boogies on them does not bother me. Possible chemical residues are my concern. They won’t make you puke, but they do build up in the body over time and aren’t a good thing. So you’re _not_ worried about actual pathogenic agents and carriers, but you _are_ worried about “chemical” residues (that presumably “build up” as “toxins” in the body over time and cause “harm”)? The entire scientific communities of the 17th, 18th, 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries would like a word with you in the dark alley behind the bar. And I need to go buy some more quotation marks. ---
**Author:** ![Brown\_Eyed\_Girl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brown_eyed_girl/32/3574_2.png) [@Brown\_Eyed\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brown_Eyed_Girl)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2010, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-rarely-wash-fruits-and-veggies-before-consuming-them/537331/56 "2010-04-28T03:23:12Z")
> [@spark240](#): > > In general I don’t think you’ll come to harm eating an unwashed vegetable from time to time. (Produce from home gardens is nearly always going to be cleaner than anything in a store, anyway.) This made me chuckle although I’m it’s true more often than not. However, I used to walk my dog past this house on the corner with a decent size backyard and a large, bountiful vegetable garden planted right NEXT to the sidewalk. I never could understand it. All that room for a garden and the lovely red tomatoes were hanging right where every dog in the neighborhood squirted all over them. I made a mental note to never accept produce from that genius. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hazle_Weatherfield)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2010, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-rarely-wash-fruits-and-veggies-before-consuming-them/537331/57 "2010-04-28T03:37:36Z")
Not accusing your dog of anything untoward, but it sucks that someone can’t choose a place for a garden on his own property (perhaps the lighting or soil happens to be better there) and have to worry about peeing trespassers! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Brown\_Eyed\_Girl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brown_eyed_girl/32/3574_2.png) [@Brown\_Eyed\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brown_Eyed_Girl)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2010, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-rarely-wash-fruits-and-veggies-before-consuming-them/537331/58 "2010-04-28T04:12:10Z")
> [@Hazle\_Weatherfield](#): > > Not accusing your dog of anything untoward, but it sucks that someone can’t choose a place for a garden on his own property (perhaps the lighting or soil happens to be better there) and have to worry about peeing trespassers! 😉 I hear ya, and I tried to be very conscientious about making sure my dog didn’t despoil the tomatoes, but he sure spent a lot of time inspecting the entire row of plants. If you’ve ever walked a dog, I don’t have to tell you the diligence with which dogs mark every landmark on their route. ---
**Author:** ![Redfishhunter930](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/df705f/32.png) [@Redfishhunter930](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Redfishhunter930)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2010, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-rarely-wash-fruits-and-veggies-before-consuming-them/537331/59 "2010-04-28T11:27:50Z")
Hey wake up sheople,No amount of rinsing is going to get rid of a nasty pathogen off of your fruits and veggies. It just going to spread it around in other nooks and corners. I’m not saying not to rinse off the dirt and saliva. But your fooling yourself if you believe your getting rid of germs by rinsing. ---
**Author:** ![rhubarbarin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eb9ed0/32.png) [@rhubarbarin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rhubarbarin)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2010, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-rarely-wash-fruits-and-veggies-before-consuming-them/537331/60 "2010-04-28T18:05:08Z")
> [@TimeWinder](#): > > So you’re _not_ worried about actual pathogenic agents and carriers, but you _are_ worried about “chemical” residues (that presumably “build up” as “toxins” in the body over time and cause “harm”)? The entire scientific communities of the 17th, 18th, 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries would like a word with you in the dark alley behind the bar. > > And I need to go buy some more quotation marks. I’m not worried about germs because I don’t get ill any more, despite less than sanitary habits. I am worried about pesticide/herbicide/fungicide residues. While standards in regions and countries vary hugely and little seems to be certain about their effect on people, we do know that small amounts of many commercial pesticides/herbicides are can be found in the bodies of most Americans (probably from their wider distribution through the environment rather than eating too many strawberries, I admit). I’m more inclined to agree with the decisions the EU makes about what products should be widely used… they have much stricter standards and have banned many products commonly used here. I’m thankful for the regulatory systems in place which do a good job of making sure produce does not have levels over the recommended (non-harmful) amount, but I don’t have faith there will never be another chlordane, endrin, hexachlorobenzene, toxaphene, or heptachlor and I would rather not eat ‘safe’ amounts of toxic compounds if I can easily wash them off, thanks. I don’t think washing my fruits and veg for fear of teeny residual amounts of pesticides is any sillier than other people I know who obsessively disinfect their surrounding, themselves and their children out of an intense fear of rhinovirus.😛 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-rarely-wash-fruits-and-veggies-before-consuming-them/537331.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-rarely-wash-fruits-and-veggies-before-consuming-them/537331.md?page=4)