Washing/Cleaning fruits & vegetables

[boohayomega]

Hello,

I buy fruits and vegetables from the supermarket. Since these are not organic what is the best way to clean these before consumption? Would it still be raw if I use hot water to clean/wash these fruits & vegetables?

Thanks, Boohay

[Jesann]

I don't eat a raw diet, so I can't say whether washing them in hot water would "cook" them. I have been told many times to use cold water, as hot water might destroy some of the vitamins.

When you wash them, use something like baking soda/bicarbonate, an organic veggie wash, or something like lemon juice in addition to water. I get so much criticism about this, but take it from someone who worked in a market-- wash everything, even organics. No matter how clean the staff tries to be, all it takes is one sick customer with no sense of hygiene....

[Speedbump]

Water hot enough to "sterilize" the fruits and vegetables would indeed cook the food, and water that hot does not come out of the tap. You would have to dump boiling water over the food in order to even possibly sterilize it with heat.

As already said here, baking soda is an excellent fruit and veggie wash and gets off a lot of bad things, including waxes, pesticides (on the surface) and I'm sure some microbes. I mainly use Fit, which includes among other ingredients, baking soda.

A scrubbing action, when possible, is better than soaking if you want to remove microbes specifically. Most people don't know this, but it is actually the action of rubbing your hands together under running water that removes most of the bacteria from your hands, NOT the soap. The same would go for fruits and veggies, I'm sure.

HTH!

Rachel

[Jesann]

Originally Posted by Speedbump

Water hot enough to "sterilize" the fruits and vegetables would indeed cook the food, and water that hot does not come out of the tap. You would have to dump boiling water over the food in order to even possibly sterilize it with heat.

Good point-- you'd essentially be blanching the fruit by doing that, wouldn't you?

Originally Posted by Speedbump

A scrubbing action, when possible, is better than soaking if you want to remove microbes specifically. Most people don't know this, but it is actually the action of rubbing your hands together under running water that removes most of the bacteria from your hands, NOT the soap. The same would go for fruits and veggies, I'm sure.
Rachel

Soap of some type is still necessary-- it acts as a lubricant so dirt can wash off your hands more easily, and I would guess that's how it works on food as well. This is why when you wash your hands you're supposed to always use both soap and water-- dirt and germs are sticky. They've got a penchant for spreading around, rather than immediately rinsing off.

[amites]

one thing to consider with produce is that they contain mostly water

most pesticides / herbicides etc... are water soluble

you can scrub all you want your not getting a majority of the crap out,

I don't say this to discourage you, I myself recently joined the raw food crowd (for an experiment atleast the results lean towards keeping it as I figure out how to afford it)

however this site is all about living consciously,

thus my recommendation don't worry about it to much, rub - rinse - eat

if you're talking about apples and things that are covered in wax for shipment that is another story...

just some food for thought