I always wash my apples before eating them but I wonder if it does any good. I use plain cold water so it’s more a rinse than a wash. Seeing people paw through the bins and not knowing what the apples have been exposed to I wonder what you folks do. Do you wash your fruit and if so how do you do it?
Since this is seeking opinions, let’s move it to IMHO. Title edited to indicate subject.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
The best way according to this NPR article is with a dilute vinegar solution, but it also notes " . . . water can remove 98 percent of bacteria when it’s used to rinse and soak produce." I don’t eat much fruit myself, but when I do, I usually just use running water to rinse, and then dry with a paper towel.
My immune system washes the apple after I swallow it.
I’d be interested in evidence that pathogens can persist on apples.
I live on the wild side; I just eat the fruit. Nothing’s happened so far…:eek:
Same here. I rarely wash fruit before eating it.
Not usually. Also the “5 second rule” when something falls on the ground, has been extended to… “eh…looks fine to me!” I does depend on where it fell, I suppose. My stomach acids have killed everything so far. I live on an even wilder side than Ambivalid.
I always wash fruit before eating it. Apples, grapes, mangoes, even oranges. It’s really just to wash off any dirt on them.
A Google search for “contaminated apples” gives over 4 million results, including recalls, mainly due to listeria but e. coli and salmonella are also found (salmonella is actually a plant pathogen; it infects the plant cells themselves, not just a contaminant, the same bacteria infect animals as well).
Anyway, I don’t really think about this when I eat apples, or other fruit and vegetables, as long as it doesn’t look dirty (and as far as I know, I never got sick from it).
I like to keep my immune system on it’s toes. Most store bought produce is free of dirt and debris, so I rarely bother to wash any except potatoes. Farmers market or garden picked gets washed after harvesting to remove any field dirt, but I’ve never gone as far as trying to disinfect any.
Hell yes I wash it, and with the hottest water that will come out of the tap. Sometimes I even use some dish soap for good measure.
Not washing fruit and veggies is disgusting. Anecdotal evidence = I know someone that once turned around in a grocery store’s produce section to catch their young son standing in the cart and urinating on the grape display.
Amusing username\post combo.
How do your stomach acids kill something that is not alive - e.g. viruses?
My dad uses a brush.
I wouldn’t say that is [Iexactly]* true. Rocks are not alive; viruses certainly don’t exist in the same sphere of lifelessness of rocks.
How likely is it that I’ll contract a disease from eating a little kid’s long-dried urine? (boy, that’s one sentence I never imagined myself typing)
It doesn’t top pee, but I have a somewhat similar story. I frequently stop on my way to work to pick up fresh fruit for breakfast, usually around 6 am. On multiple occasions in different stores, whoever is cleaning the floors in the produce section has taken the rubber mats they put in front of some of the bins ON the bins and the produce to get the out of the way. They’re disgustingly dirty and covered with all manner of greasy shoe filth.
So yeah, I wash all my produce.
Yes, I have a piece of plastic mesh I use to scrub the apple under warm running water. I got the apples from my neighbor and I know he had pesticides applied 3 times this year.
See, this is why I don’t eat fruit.