# 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:** 16\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2010, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-rarely-wash-fruits-and-veggies-before-consuming-them/537331/81 "2010-05-04T14:42:30Z")
if a field has been freshly sprayed safety might include no nose picking or eye wiping as well as eating both the crop or anything without hand washing. nonactive components of sprays can also pose a health risk. these are often only a problem when applying or soon after. ---
**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:** [May 4, 2010, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-rarely-wash-fruits-and-veggies-before-consuming-them/537331/82 "2010-05-04T22:22:08Z")
> [@spark240](#): > > I didn’t mean to say that I felt sick _instantly_ upon swallowing a few berries. > > I was working in the field, it was hot, and here I was surrounded by all this good-looking fresh fruit, apparently free for the taking. I ate a few berries, kept working, ate a few more. Over the course of perhaps an hour, I ate a handful in total, a couple at a time. _Then_ I began feeling sick. Not too bad at first; I tried to keep working a bit longer. But it got worse; my head started to spin a little, and _then_ I started to feel seriously nauseated. > > It wasn’t like taking a poison pill and being struck down a moment later. Understood - by ‘immediately’ I meant within a short space of time, as opposed to hours or days later. Thing is, if someone told me that they were working for hours in the hot sun, then guess what happened? I would venture to guess that the story continues with them starting to feel ill, giddy, nauseated, and that the symptoms went away with water and rest, Sunstroke or just dehydration will do that without any pesticide poisoning. > [@](#): > > All I can say is that after a few hours working in the sun, those berries looked and tasted pretty good. Maybe I would have noticed something otherwise. But, look, it appears that a couple dozen chemicals _might_ have been used in that field. Some of them might be more or less tasteless. I don’t know what pesticide is “supposed” to taste like. In concentrations high enough to fit the account you’re relating, I think there would be a noticeable taste, whatever the pesticide was - that’s why I can’t make sense of it. ---
**Author:** ![Al\_Bundy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e79b87/32.png) [@Al\_Bundy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Al_Bundy)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2010, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-rarely-wash-fruits-and-veggies-before-consuming-them/537331/83 "2010-05-04T22:46:42Z")
I’ve never eaten fresh beets since the day I noticed the feces on them at a local fruit market. I can’t get past that experience. I wash everything and sometimes spray peroxide on it just to watch the bubbles. ---
**Author:** ![race\_to\_the\_bottom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c4cdca/32.png) [@race\_to\_the\_bottom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/race_to_the_bottom)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2010, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-rarely-wash-fruits-and-veggies-before-consuming-them/537331/84 "2010-05-05T14:15:11Z")
> [@janeslogin](#): > > Some of us older curmudgeons have joked about the washing of root vegetables when we were kids. We would be sent to the garden to harvest carrots for dinner. We would wipe some of the dirt off a fine carrot and eat it in the garden while gathering other vegetables. But once the carrot was inside the kitchen it was insisted that it must be washed and peeled. Its true. We did this all the time when we were growing up in the country. So did everyone else. And as children, we played in the dirt and were covered with the stuff. Guess what? Hardly anyone developed allergies. Anecdotal evidence for the hygiene hypothesis. So we were exposed to all kinds of soil bacteria, which is good. However I am not so inclined to ingest other peoples fecal bacteria, even if most of it is harmless. Next time you go to the fruit market, watch people selecting apples. They pick up and inspect all the fruit. An apple may have been handled by dozens of people before you buy it. Hmm. I wonder if all these people scrubbed their hands after the last time they wiped their asses. Would you feel comfortable licking their fingers? No? Then why is it ok to eat fruit they have handled? So with apples, peppers and anything else I don’t peel, I use hot water, dishwashing detergent and a vegetable brush. ---
**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:** [May 5, 2010, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-rarely-wash-fruits-and-veggies-before-consuming-them/537331/85 "2010-05-05T14:44:06Z")
> [@race\_to\_the\_bottom](#): > > Hmm. I wonder if all these people scrubbed their hands after the last time they wiped their asses. Would you feel comfortable licking their fingers? No? Then why is it ok to eat fruit they have handled? Because the apple they touch does not carry anywhere near the bacterial count that their fingers do, just as their fingers do not carry the same bacterial count as their anus. Are you under the illusion that a single bacterium can cause illness? Despite your best efforts, you consume millions of other people’s fecal bacteria every day, and don’t get sick. Do you know why? Because you do not consume them at levels that cannot be dealt with by your immune system. The closer you come to the original source (feces), the higher the count, and the greater the risk. The more intermediate surfaces in between (anus, toilet tissue, fingers, apple), the lower the risk. Scrubbing fresh fruits & vegetables with hot water, brush and detergent borders on pathological behavior, not to mention that it sounds unappetizing. How do you clean mushrooms? ---
**Author:** ![phreesh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9fc29f/32.png) [@phreesh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phreesh)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2010, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-rarely-wash-fruits-and-veggies-before-consuming-them/537331/86 "2010-05-05T14:50:26Z")
I can’t get over how germaphobic we are nowadays. Yes. It is demostrably safer to wash your vegetables. However, the additional risk to your health by not washing your produce has also got to be vanishingly small when weighed against other health risks such as smoking, alcohol use, obesity and even risky activities such as reckless driving or dangerous sports. While I don’t have data to support this, I can’t imagine you could sort out the veggie washers from the non-veggie washers in a randmom sample of people that you test for overall health. People are just more freaked out by dirt these days. And the anecdotes about snot, piss and shit existing on most of our veggies is just another modern bogeyman. ---
**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:** [May 5, 2010, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-rarely-wash-fruits-and-veggies-before-consuming-them/537331/87 "2010-05-05T16:06:47Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > How do you clean mushrooms? …and did you know they’re grown in composted shit? ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2010, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-rarely-wash-fruits-and-veggies-before-consuming-them/537331/88 "2010-05-05T23:33:29Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > Thing is, if someone told me that they were working for hours in the hot sun, then guess what happened? I would venture to guess that the story continues with them starting to feel ill, giddy, nauseated, and that the symptoms went away with water and rest, Sunstroke or just dehydration will do that without any pesticide poisoning. I’ve done agricultural and construction work for hours in the sun plenty of times before and since this episode. I’ve had sunstroke a few times, and I’ve learned to keep hydrated. Experientially, this wasn’t like sunstroke. It was like a nasty drug, with much more dramatic and disorienting sensations, and much more pronounced nausea than I’d experienced from the sun. > [@Mangetout](#): > > In concentrations high enough to fit the account you’re relating, I think there would be a noticeable taste, whatever the pesticide was - that’s why I can’t make sense of it. How many pesticides have you tasted? Do you have any factual basis for your skepticism, or just an ideological commitment to the idea that nobody ever gets sick from eating pesticide-treated produce? ---
**Author:** ![Taomist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/53a042/32.png) [@Taomist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taomist)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2010, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-rarely-wash-fruits-and-veggies-before-consuming-them/537331/89 "2010-05-06T02:11:04Z")
> [@Hazle\_Weatherfield](#): > > Really, I only wash potatoes, mushrooms and anything that’s fresh out of the garden. Never have, probably never will and have never suffered any ill effects. What’s the big deal? 🙂 I saw a news show \ a couple of years ago that ran some tests with fresh produce, to see what it would take to actually get rid of all the bacteria on it. Nothing short of radiation came even CLOSE to knocking the veggies down to ‘clean’. Not washing, not scrubbing, not bleach rinsing \ Before that, I only washed cursorily. And…nothing’s changed. It’s roulette 🙂 Most produce I eat ends up cooked, however. And I skin my cukes. One of these days, my radishes will give me diarrhea, but oh well. I loves me my radishes \<3 For the record, I’ve been sick from food-borne bacteria 3 times. Twice from not-cooked-enough chicken \ and once from…thawed, previously-frozen pepperoni. Now, pepperoni’s about the most processed thing I can think of, PLUS it’d been frozen for quite a while…it was more likely from the knife I used to cut it, but that was as washed as anything else I owned, and…that was it. Was projectile-everything-ing for about 12 hours, and then done. No biggie. 43 years of eating everything that looks tasty \, working restaurants and hospitals and around kids and I only get food-poisoning 3 times, twice from clear sources? Worth it. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2010, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-rarely-wash-fruits-and-veggies-before-consuming-them/537331/90 "2010-05-06T04:21:36Z")
> [@phreesh](#): > > \ > > While I don’t have data to support this, I can’t imagine you could sort out the veggie washers from the non-veggie washers in a randmom sample of people that you test for overall health. You should start a poll thread. > [@](#): > > People are just more freaked out by dirt these days. And the anecdotes about snot, piss and shit existing on most of our veggies is just another modern bogeyman. I’ve seen it with my own eyes. I’m far less concerned about washing off pesticides than I am about washing off what everyone else’s hands have left on my apples. ---
**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:** [May 6, 2010, 7:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-rarely-wash-fruits-and-veggies-before-consuming-them/537331/91 "2010-05-06T07:58:35Z")
> [@](#): > > How many pesticides have you tasted? Do you have any factual basis for your skepticism I’ve not deliberately tasted any of them, but I have applied a variety of them to fruits and vegetables in my garden in my lifetime. Without exception (within my experience, which I acknowledge, will be incomplete and may crucially omit commercial compounds), they stink - usually quite an acrid odour, even when diluted. I fully expect this to mean they are not tasteless, or pleasant. If you like, we could compile a list of the pesticides likely to have been used on blueberries, then consult the chemists on the board as to what a human-threatening dose might taste like, but listen - _do you have a factual basis for your assertion?_. You say you suffered acute poisoning soon after eating a small handful of ripe blueberries, but without being aware that you were eating poison. Yours is the positive assertion. What pesticide could have been responsible? > [@](#): > > or just an ideological commitment to the idea that nobody ever gets sick from eating pesticide-treated produce? I have no such ideological commitment, so no. Please do not insinuate motives like this. My skepticism - if that’s what you wish to call it - is based solely on the points I have already laid out in this thread. I do not dispute that pesticides can have detrimental effects on the human body - I do, however, doubt that a dose sufficient to cause rapid onset of symptoms would be likely to be present, yet undetectable on a small handful of ripe blueberries. ---
**Author:** ![Superhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2010, 8:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-rarely-wash-fruits-and-veggies-before-consuming-them/537331/92 "2010-05-06T08:18:18Z")
My wife is from Korea, where it really is hazardous. They don’t just wash, they wash the peel the skins off everything, including grapes. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her eat the skin on anything, including meat. On the other hand, when I was growing up, we had all kinds of garden fruits, and I went hiking very often. I would eat just about anything in the field except mushrooms. Some stuff she peels I think tastes a lot worse, like peaches and nectarines. ---
**Author:** ![lorene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/65b543/32.png) [@lorene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lorene)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2010, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-rarely-wash-fruits-and-veggies-before-consuming-them/537331/93 "2010-05-06T15:00:20Z")
> [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](#): > > I just don’t like the gritty texture of dirt in my food. Spinach, as but one example - if it’s been grown in some sandy soil, there’s dirt on it. Getting that gritty bit of sandy dirt in my creamed spinach is not conducive to gastronomy. That’s my issue, too. It’s not that I think the washing I do is magically rinsing every potentially harmful substance away (and, as others have pointed out, would you really want to? A little immunity is a good thing), but I don’t like the taste or texture of dirt. For those of you who don’t wash, does it change if you are cooking for guests? My mom served me a salad recently and the lettuce and mushrooms had obviously not even seen a drop of water, let alone been rinsed. To be honest, I was kind of insulted that she would serve me dirt. (But that’s veering off into another thread…) ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2010, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-rarely-wash-fruits-and-veggies-before-consuming-them/537331/94 "2010-05-06T15:09:38Z")
> [@Superhal](#): > > My wife is from Korea, where it really is hazardous. They don’t just wash, they wash the peel the skins off everything, including grapes. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her eat the skin on anything, including meat. > > On the other hand, when I was growing up, we had all kinds of garden fruits, and I went hiking very often. I would eat just about anything in the field except mushrooms. > > Some stuff she peels I think tastes a lot worse, like peaches and nectarines. What’s so hazardous about Korea? Also … peeling _grapes?!?_ That’s a patient culture! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2010, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-rarely-wash-fruits-and-veggies-before-consuming-them/537331/95 "2010-05-06T16:07:00Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > \ > I do not dispute that pesticides can have detrimental effects on the human body - I do, however, doubt that a dose sufficient to cause rapid onset of symptoms would be likely to be present, yet undetectable on a small handful of ripe blueberries. My story is about a herbicide not a pesticide, but I think it’s close enough here. I was using a dandelion bar on my lawn one morning; I went inside to have lunch, then promptly threw it right back up, and I don’t puke. I’ve never had a stomach flu as an adult, and I can’t think of a single incidence of food poisoning making me vomit, but I puked that day. Since then, I still use herbicides, but I’m careful to stay upwind of them. If I get a whiff of them, my stomach does a little roll. ---
**Author:** ![phreesh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9fc29f/32.png) [@phreesh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phreesh)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2010, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-rarely-wash-fruits-and-veggies-before-consuming-them/537331/96 "2010-05-06T22:04:53Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > You should start a poll thread. > > I’ve seen it with my own eyes. I’m far less concerned about washing off pesticides than I am about washing off what everyone else’s hands have left on my apples. I don’t think a poll would provide any meaningful data. I don’t generally wash my produce. I think I’m healthy. You wash yours. You think you’re healthy. Who’s right? I’m not saying that absolutely no gross stuff gets on produce. It does. What I’m saying is that gross stuff is EVERYWHERE. And yet we go on living. By washing your produce, you are making a negligible contribution to your health and reducing the amount of gross stuff you consume by miniscule quantities. In my opinion, you are making an improvement to your health by washing your produce, but that improvement is outweighed by nearly anything else you do. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-rarely-wash-fruits-and-veggies-before-consuming-them/537331.md?page=4)