We recently had a discussion on washing produce. If you think about all the hands that have touched that produce before it gets to your house, it kinda makes you wanna say "Gross"!!! Is rinsing your produce under water enough? Do the fruit/veggie washes really work? How do you get your produce clean? You've got to wonder how clean your food is after the farmers have grown the produce and it passes through all those hands that have touched it to get it all the way to your table.
Well, lucky for us, we came across an article that helped us sort things out a bit! One of our fav websites,
Healthy Alter Ego, wrote an article just for us.... well, not really for us, but it seemed like it :) It is pretty interesting, so we thought we'd share a little of it! (for the full article see Healthy Alter Ego)If your produce was conventionally grown, it was probably sprayed with pesticides. "Some pesticide residues remain, even after washing, in part because they are incorporated into the produce during the growing process itself. They are within the produce, not just on the surface. A couple points I want to highlight here. First, EWG states that you can avoid close to 80% of pesticide consumption by avoiding the produce listed in their Dirty Dozen, or opting to select organic varieties of those foods. However, if the option is not available to you most experts agree that the health benefits of eating conventionally grown produce is far better than not eating fruits and vegetables at all." See our post on The Dirty Dozen to see how you can reduce your pesticide consumption by 80%. You can also get a printout to take with you to the grocery store.
"Once we get past the issue of pesticides, potentially harmful microbes are good reasons to take a look at your washing routine. NPR reported some findings from the editor’s of Cook’s Illustrated. They found that a scrub brush removed 85 percent of the bacteria — a little more than the water alone." I actually use the brush that was given to me at the hospital when Cody was born. It has the soft bristles on one side and the sponge on the other. Once I am finished washing all my produce, I run it through the dishwasher with my dishes so as to cut down on the nasties that can live in sponges!
The cleaning method that worked the best was a dilute vinegar rinse (3 parts water, 1 part vinegar). It removed 98 percent of the bacteria. For smooth and harder fruits prepare a spray bottle with the rinse and use enough to coat your produce. Then rinse the produce under cold water to remove any residual vinegar flavor. For produce with crevices, like broccoli, consider soaking in a solution for a couple of minutes, then rinse well." Oh the uses of vinegar! I just bought two economy sizes at Costco!
"What about produce washes? Currently there appears to be no real research available on the efficacy of commercially available produce washes and because pesticides are incorporated into more than the surface EWG doubts their impact would be significant. The FDA also advises against their use because they haven’t evaluated the safety of the residues the washes could leave behind and there is currently no standardization to the process." Great to know, considering I have been using a produce wash for years :(
How do you wash your produce? Let us know your thoughts on the matter!
