To not wash my fruit and veg

I always wash fruit and veg but I'm sceptical that cold water, rather than hot soapy stuff, is actually cleaning it!

You will, of course, need to wait to see the image... It will be along shortly.

@AquaPeermy friend does the same, probably it gets a lot of the crap off, but I couldn't be bothered with that.

The e coil is in bagged salad which is sweaty and hot. That’s the risk.

I unwrapped my broccoli earlier and something was in there - a moth? Flapping its wings. It was really big! Fuck knows how long it had been in there. I took it outside and then gave the broccoli a very good wash

I wouldn’t of thought a cold rinse would do much to remove pesticides. I’d assume they are water resistant as surely you don’t want to be washed off every time it rains.

I think I tend to go for things I can peel so bananas and oranges, cucumber. Cucumber is a bit of an ecoli carrier. Prefer cooked spinach as cooking will kill off bugs. I always get a whole iceberg and peel off outer layers before chopping. Again no idea if that helps really but bagged salad can be quite nasty.

i always rinse fruit & veg in cold water when i bring it home - even the stuff I'm going to peel and/or cook later.

There are two reasons I make the effort to do this:

(a) I've worked in food-growing and food-distribution environments - they are not clean, sterile places. And anything grown outside could harbour bugs and slugs, bird shit, other animal droppings...

(b) I still have a very clear memory of watching an item on TV decades ago that featured farm-workers pissing on spring onions in the field (think they were being grown for M&S)

E Coli and other harmful bacteria are a thing - and unlike previous posters I don't think of them as something that happened once, ages ago. There was actually a rise in E Coli cases in the UK last year (mostly found in sandwiches and wraps, lettuce and spinach etc). I don't want to inadvertently introduce it into my fridge, and contaminate the other food already stored in there!

I hope all of those who are saying they never rinse salad leaves do not work in catering.

Toxoplasmosis is real, infected cat poo gets into the food chain, I was diagnosed with ocular toxoplasmosis last year and spent months fighting to save my vision in the affected eye. Just as likely to have come from unwashed vegetables or fruit in the food chain as from undercooked meat. Wash fruit and vegetables please

Because I don’t think it matters that much!

This. A rinse under a warm tap isn’t going to do anything. I’m 60 and have never washed any fruit and I only rinse lettuce if it’s got dirt/bugs on it - no health problems so far!

No never wash veg, you are boling them that kills all germs. Rinsing fruit under cold water does nothing? I work in a kitchen we have some fancy liquid to put on fruit and veg but l don't bother at home, I'm 58 still alive...

I’ll wash salad that is gritty but that’s about it. I figure it’s good for the microbiome.

I don't. I don't think any nasties on fruit and veg is going to rinse off with a quick spray of water. Anything that didn't come off in the rain or in the processes that supermarkets require of their suppliers, is probably not soluble in water alone. To do any good it would need a longer and stronger process that I wouldn't have time or energy for. I choose to live with the risk that I assess as relatively low, because the minimum level of mitigation that would be needed to reduce that risk is too onerous compared to the potential benefits.

You have obviously never worked on a farm. When you have very little time to fill boxes and you are paid based on how many boxes you have filled, you are not going to get out of the field, walk very far to the toilet and come back. You will do your business just there and no, you won't wash your hands.

My uncle used to work in a warehouse and said some workers used to piss on the food, including the fruit and veg and there were often mice around as well, so yes, I wash all fruit and veg. Maybe washing it doesn’t do much, but I couldn’t not after hearing his stories.

After working in a supermarket distribution centre, i always wash everything. Especially if it's loose as there's a good chance it's been on a dirty warehouse floor.

I always was my fruit and veg because:

1-pesticides and strange fertilisers
2- handled by a long chain of workers with potentially subpar hygiene standards (you never know!).

Each to their own . We'll all die of something.

I’m pretty sure they’re not running round at night! They have to have pest control though as do restaurants etc
I lived and worked in pubs and restaurants, all had mice control boxes, none had mice

I don’t bother.

Yet what little TB there is in the uk isn’t being spread by cucumber 🤣 imagine

Im not saying it's dangerous.... obviously a public health campaign costs money and it's obviously not such a public health danger that it would be worth doing...

Regardless there's lots of dangerous, unhealthy, sub optimal things which the government doesn't bother to run public campaigns about ..

I wash anything leafy as it often has grit or earth on it - leeks, salad, spinach, sandy carrots etc. and it’s not pleasant to eat. Broccoli too, as slugs can hide inside .

Watched a documentary about cucumber picking in Albania about 30 years ago. Load of guys with TB hacking up and spitting everywhere. Cannot unsee it.
I scrub veg, peel it where possible.

People on here are literally saying they don’t because it’s a waste of time. They’re openly telling you why they don’t.

I don’t unless it obviously needs it. Most peeling and/or cooking gets rid of it anyway.