# \[Washing\] Fruit **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 16, 2012, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/washing-fruit/641245 "2012-11-16T21:09:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2012, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/washing-fruit/641245/21 "2012-11-18T04:14:27Z")
I never wash produce except to get tangible dust and dirt off. I’ve always found the conflating of personal disgust with actual protection from serious pathogens to be irritating. Squick if you must, but call it squick, not science. From what I can tell, washing produce does not particularly protect you from e.coli or salmonella, which seem to be what sickens people buying commercial produce. If you worry about pesticides (I do), buy organic. ---
**Author:** ![ShariDella](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/46a35a/32.png) [@ShariDella](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShariDella)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2012, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/washing-fruit/641245/22 "2012-11-18T04:22:54Z")
> [@VanIsleScott](#): > > 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? My mother has always used AMWAY CLR solution to wash her fruits and vegetables it removes the pesticides and does not effect the taste or vitamin value. It is a base wash, not a soap. Also if you eat a lot of apples you need to know that there is only vitamins in the skin.. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![lavenderviolet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/cdc98d/32.png) [@lavenderviolet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lavenderviolet)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2012, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/washing-fruit/641245/23 "2012-11-18T04:39:51Z")
I wash fruit and veggies with dish soap. With lettuce, I have taken to using a vinegar soak before making a salad. Eating unwashed fruit and veggies is gross to me. In addition to the contamination of people touching them, sneezing on them, peeing, etc. while the fruit/veg is in the bins at the stores, you never know what kind of filth the veggies/fruit encountered during the process of growing, being picked, and being packaged. ---
**Author:** ![IceQube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@IceQube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IceQube)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2012, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/washing-fruit/641245/24 "2012-11-18T05:05:23Z")
> [@Rachellelogram](#): > > 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) Urine is sterile unless one has a UTI. So urine isn’t invariably “dirty” or contaminated with bacteria. ---
**Author:** ![Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e4f/32.png) [@Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digital_is_the_new_Analog)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2012, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/washing-fruit/641245/25 "2012-11-18T05:28:06Z")
A friend of mine has been playing with the various microscopes in a lab recently. He noted the number of microscopic creepy-crawlies on some leaves. He washed them, and then noticed…approximately the same stuff. His conclusion is that washing might help remove some things, but clearly not everything. -D/a ---
**Author:** ![BrassyPhrase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ea666f/32.png) [@BrassyPhrase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrassyPhrase)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2012, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/washing-fruit/641245/26 "2012-11-18T05:30:50Z")
I rinse fruit to make sure it doesn’t have dirt or dust or stuff like many up thread. I also agree that one should let your immune system do its job. I have a weak stomach and food poisoning/stomach flu and I know each other well. I’ve never had it from fruit. I’m not afraid of fruit and or vegetables. Except tomatoes. From the heart of hell, I stab at thee, raw tomatoes! (Evidently in the plural, you throw the ‘e’ in there. Cursed beasts of 'e’s and Tomahtos!) ---
**Author:** ![Bad\_News\_Baboon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/5fc32e/32.png) [@Bad\_News\_Baboon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bad_News_Baboon)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2012, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/washing-fruit/641245/27 "2012-11-18T17:55:55Z")
> [@IceQube](#): > > Urine is sterile unless one has a UTI. So urine isn’t invariably “dirty” or contaminated with bacteria. I was taught urine is mostly sterile until it leaves the body. ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2012, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/washing-fruit/641245/28 "2012-11-18T19:57:56Z")
> [@Bad\_News\_Baboon](#): > > I was taught urine is mostly sterile until it leaves the body. in that case, a Band-Aid is sterile until you open it. ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2012, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/washing-fruit/641245/29 "2012-11-18T20:10:40Z")
> [@IceQube](#): > > Urine is sterile unless one has a UTI. So urine isn’t invariably “dirty” or contaminated with bacteria. The urine that has dried up on those leaves of lettuce that your buying is most certainly NOT sterile; UTI or not. Urine is only sterile INSIDE the body. ---
**Author:** ![R3d\_Anonymous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/aeb1de/32.png) [@R3d\_Anonymous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/R3d_Anonymous)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2012, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/washing-fruit/641245/30 "2012-11-18T21:08:23Z")
Yes. Wash the apples. You don’t know where they’ve been. Someone in the grocery store could have came out of the bathroom without washing their hands and could have touched the apple that you’re not washing. I don’t know, but it seems rather dubious to not wash your fruits. ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2012, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/washing-fruit/641245/31 "2012-11-18T21:27:41Z")
> [@Anonymous User](#): > > I don’t know, but it seems rather dubious to not wash your fruits. Yes, especially if you’re about to share them before marriage. ---
**Author:** ![Michael63129](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3da27b/32.png) [@Michael63129](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Michael63129)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2012, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/washing-fruit/641245/32 "2012-11-18T21:31:48Z")
> [@jz78817](#): > > in that case, a Band-Aid is sterile until you open it. Well, that’s true. As soon as you touch it, it becomes covered with bacteria, which are all over your skin, no matter how often you wash. The same is true for urine; the outermost part of your urethra almost certainly has bacteria in it, including fecal bacteria (no, it doesn’t matter how you wipe, and you really think every last bit of fecal matter is wiped off?). ---
**Author:** ![Arrendajo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Arrendajo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arrendajo)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2012, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/washing-fruit/641245/33 "2012-11-18T22:44:17Z")
I usually rinse fruit and vegetables, mostly to remove dirt clods and dog shit. I’m not afraid of germs. I’m way bigger than they are. ---
**Author:** ![zweisamkeit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zweisamkeit/32/4360_2.png) [@zweisamkeit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zweisamkeit)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2012, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/washing-fruit/641245/34 "2012-11-18T23:29:06Z")
> [@Anonymous User](#): > > Yes. Wash the apples. You don’t know where they’ve been. “Get that finger outta your ear! You don’t know where that finger’s been!” ---
**Author:** ![janeslogin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@janeslogin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/janeslogin)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2012, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/washing-fruit/641245/35 "2012-11-19T16:33:07Z")
As kids in a rural are we were often sent out to harvest fresh fruit or vegetables and would sometimes eat some on the spot but before the collect product was brought inside it had to be washed. Fast forward sixty years. I am at the senior center having lunch and persons at my table were laughing about their childhood and how it was OK to eat an unwashed apple, or even a carrot, but once brought inside it had to be washed. We had no answer. ---
**Author:** ![Audrey\_Levins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/73ab20/32.png) [@Audrey\_Levins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Audrey_Levins)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2012, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/washing-fruit/641245/36 "2012-11-20T01:44:35Z")
I will soak strawberries and grapes in a bowl of cold water for a few minutes; it’s remarkable how dirty the water is once I remove the fruit. Bugs and debris and dirt…same thing for lettuce and other stuff. if it’s a banana or avocado or something with an inedible skin, I don’t wash it. I doubt what is on the unrinsed fruit will kill me; I just don’t feel like eating dirt and bugs for no reason. ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2012, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/washing-fruit/641245/37 "2012-11-20T02:41:03Z")
Ignorance is truly frickin’ bliss. Has _anyone_ ever gotten sick from dirty (unwashed) fruit? ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2012, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/washing-fruit/641245/38 "2012-11-20T03:45:02Z")
I try to remember to do what Mom does, which is wash fruit with soapy water. Literally. A lot of fruit in the United States is picked by poorly treated migrant workers whose sanitary facilities in the fields are sometimes… the fields. And sometimes are more acceptable, but lack proper washing stations. I’ll take my fresh produce without the invisible specks of feces, thankyouverymuch. ---
**Author:** ![Hedda\_Rosa](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hedda_rosa/32/1204_2.png) [@Hedda\_Rosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hedda_Rosa)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2012, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/washing-fruit/641245/39 "2012-11-20T05:03:21Z")
I keep a spray bottle of vinegar and water and spray off fruit and veggies. (If I’m not going to eat them right away I soak soft fruits like berries in a water/vinegar mixture and dry them…they keep for ages that way.) I wash and spin salad & greens. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/washing-fruit/641245.md?page=1)