AIBU for washing fruit with washing up liquid?

[Sleepybeanbump]

So to wash fruit I put washing up liquid on it, swish it around a bit in water, and then carefully rinse it all off.

This seemed perfectly normal until today when a bunch of people stared at me in horror saying WTAF are you DOING!?!?

Apparently it's irredeemably weird and my fruit must taste of washing up liquid (it doesn't, that would be rank, I rinse it completely).

I also only do it to fruit with a skin, not stuff like strawberries and raspberries. They just get water.

So? Am I a total fruit-washing freak?

I am heartily sick of the glossy perfection of the Disney apples in every shop!

This!

Odd. I wash fruit and veg with water, wipe mushrooms etc but never occurred to me that I should be using fairy liquid on my apples and pears, wondering if I should pop the fruit bowl in the dishwasher on a quick setting right now

YANBU! Especially with fruit that you choose yourself and put in a bag. Imagine how many people before you have touched it, sneezed on it etc. You can't wash that away with a bit of water.
I'm with you, Dynomite! I know it might be completely irrational but it makes me happy so not at all bothered if others find it strange. We all have our foibles!!
OP YANBU!/emo/te/2.gif.pagespeed.ce.pqlGYGVWqX.gif

i used to work on a fruit farm and they paid fuck all attention to any rules on pesticide use. i doubt its any better in kenya/thailand/morocco/ wherever our fruit is imported from half the time. grapes are especially bad i think?

Just water but most soft fruit is home grown and fairly organic. I wash grapes but not apples etc. lettuce gets washed and spun.

These guys would have said yabu
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1069346/
"detergents are a useful if not indispensable part of modern living, but we should take precautions against eating them"

I do this for apples/plums/lemons/pears. Anything with skin I am eating. Fruit pickers are on hugely low wages living in dire conditions a lot of the time. Lots of people will have handled the fruit and I agree it's always got a waxy/dusty feel if you don't wash it. I'd never put a pound coin in my mouth - why unwashed fruit? yuck!

i do it. it washes all the goo off

I feel I should add:

I only ever have Ecover in the house anyway, so not using loads of nasties.
It's rinsed so well it's no different (to me) to using washing up liquid to wash the mug you'd drink out of- and certainly better than my in laws who don't rinse their crockery when they wash up! Bleurgh!!
No, it doesn't taste of washing up liquid because I rinse it all off for ages.
I mainly eat organic fruit so I'm not trying to wash off chemicals, more all the grub of people handling it, transportation etc.
I don't use liquid on strawberries and raspberries as they seem quite porous so I always think they probably would end up tasting a bit of the liquid even if you rinsed thoroughly.

Anything else?

You fool!

Putting them in the dishwasher is the only way to get them truly clean (not at the same time as the loo brush of course )

I wash fruit like apples and pears with a sponge. I don't think it's odd at all. Not fruit that's going to be peeled just if I'm eating the skin.
Berries I just rinse under water. Grapes I swish about with my hand under water to get that dusty stuff off.
Everyone can do what they want with their fruit.

I take them with me in the bubble bath and play with them. Then I line them all up on the side of the bath, rub them dry with a soft towel, and polish them with a soft lint free cloth. Then I draw faces on them and put them on the kitchen window ledge to relax in the sun.

So you're wasting gallons of water rinsing washing-up liquid from fruit?

Barmy.

Don't do it again.
The solvent in washing up liquid is butyl glycol acetate and you don't want that on your fruit. It hasn't been test for the fruit skin porosity but just for hard surfaces such as glass. Use bicarb instead.
I work for a petrol-chemical company, trust me, do NOT use washing up liquid for a different purpose than the one it is designed and tested for.

I'm with you OP, I've worked on fruit farms, and fruit pickers of apples pears strawberry as well as currants, lettuce, runner beans etc etc NEVER had access to toilets during the day or hand washing facilities !!!!
You are fields away from the farm facilities for most of the day, and you just have to get on with the job and use a bush ! that's why I wash my fruit and veg ????

Op, I do the same as you. As others have said, the waxy surface is ick, and fruit gets sprayed with tonnes of pesticides.

I got into the habit with doing it as my parents had loads of fruit trees in their gardens, and they would always spray them with pesticides to protect them (Australia, so a HUGE variety of fruit.). Washing straight after picking would make the fruit go overripe/mouldy much faster. So fruit was always well washed just before eating it.

I also recently read a Which? magazine tip of rinsing strawberries in water with a bit vinegar in it to kill off any mould spores - this will apparently make them last longer in the fridge. I think it's working, not quite sure yet as DS2 is on a bit of a strawberry binge atm.

IIRC washing up liquid is much too toxic to pass pesticide safety tests so using it to 'wash off the pesticides' is pretty pointless. Lots of everyday stuff is too toxic to be used as a pesticide - toothpaste, shampoo, salt etc but that's a whole other thread.

I use washing up liquid too. AND I SCRUB the residual stamen bit on apples and pears with a nail brush.
And while we're at it l find those small foam backed scouring pads useful on spuds, carrots, parsnips etc.. They're also good for exfoliating rough knees and elbows.

I wash the fruit that I pick from the garden with a tiny drop of bleach or bicarb in as that stops it going mouldy so quickly.

I never wash fruit or veg unless it has obvious dirt on it, simply can't be arsed.

FFS. Bonkers

Do people seriously not wash fruit at all? I've snacked on strawberries straight out of the punnet and I swear I can feel the grit crunching between my teeth..... bleugh!!

" I am aghast that people eat fruit that the pesticides can be tasted on, surely you really need to change your supplier?"

They can't. It's bollocks.

All these "I never wash fruit or veg" posts are doing my head in! They are natural products that have come from outdoors. Before they go in your mouth they need a wash (but not with stuff for plates).
"Here darling, have an unwashed stick of celery! What's that you say? Oh, never mind the sandy grit in the grooves, you'll be fine!"

Can I ask people what they think plastic gloves in the supermarket fruit section are for? I'm very curious to see your answers...

They have plastic gloves in the supermarket fruit section??