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?

Extremely weird OP. I wouldn't mind if there was consistency in your theory but why do apples require washing up liquid but strawberries don't?

Can I ask people what they think plastic gloves in the supermarket fruit section are for? I'm very curious to see your answers
What? I've never seen gloves in the fruit aisle. Plastic bags to put the fruit in yeah, but gloves? Never. I must be shopping in the wrong supermarkets.

No you are not a fruit washing freak, there are so many chemicals put on crops it's entirely reasonable.
However, I hope you are using something bio friendly...?

Epic fail on my part!
I live in a country where you have to wear disposable gloves if you serve yourself in the supermarket. Personally I just put the bag over my hand and pick up the fruit through it.
I do the same in the UK, so the lack of gloves never registers. [shame]

Supposedly it's to protect the fruit, but there are also those who'd rather not walk around the supermarket with earth (or worse) on their hands after handling loose potatoes...

Argh! Emoticon fail.
Go to bed, major.

YADNBU OP....I do the same. Nothing wrong with clean fruit.

Have some of you never seen fruit falling on the floor at the market? Fruit stacked by some stock-boy whose hands are filthy?Fruit pawed over by people in search of just the right orange?

It's your choice but IMO unwashed fruit is unpleasant at best being polite

I'd never done this until last year. Only just beat a snail to a tomato. Needed to removed the slime. Bloody good tomatoes, so wasn't wasting one! (Hope this year's crop is half as good... )

Sleepsoftly, you've given me a good laugh!

Ha, I see I'm not the only one having flashbacks to the meat washing thread.

Most of the soft fruit in our garden at the moment doesn't even make it as far as the kitchen to be washed.

I'm sure I heard somewhere that the chemicals used on fruit will have leached inside the fruit anyway by the time they're on the supermarket shelves.
I don't wash fruit only because I can't be a*d .

How ridiculous. only on mumsnet!

It baffles me that people think COLD tap water washes off chemicals! Some dirt yes....chemicals...no!

I don't think you are going to wash the pesticides off. Anyway a lot of pesticide would be absorbed by the plant. But you can wash off any dirt or dust.

Gosh. I don't even rinse with water let alone give a proper soapy wash...

You are the person my dishwasher was intended for, it has a 'fruit' setting.

It baffles me that people think COLD tap water washes off chemicals! Some dirt yes....chemicals...no!

Water is chemicals, warm or cold

I wash lemons and limes using washing up liquid to remove the wax before zesting.

And as a side note on residues and other contaminants, I've worked at MAFF and Defra and have read many of the internal and FSA testing reports on residues. Let's just say that rinsing your fruit and veg is a good idea, especially soft fruits and salad veg...

plastic gloves in supermarkets?dishwashers with 'fruit' settings?

OP - my initial reaction was that washing fruit in washing-up liquid is a bit unusual.

Then I read (for example) FurtherSupport's and apricotdanish's posts about the crap involved in growing fruit, and that made me wonder if it's enough just to rinse my fruit (hope that doesn't sound like a euphemism).

And then I read gordonpym's post about the crap in washing-up liquid.

But "you can buy a special fruit washing liquid" - ???

And sashh's dishwasher has a 'fruit' setting?

I don't bother washing at all

YANBU. I wash some fruit with washing up liquid - things like grapes, nectarines, cherries and apples. I wash all fruit and vegetables in water. I wash melons, avacados and mangoes before cutting them. My parents have always done it and I just continued. It just makes sense to me, especially reading the post by damson.

see here

dishwashering fruit

other things to wash in a dishwasher Including your toothbrush!!

Head Explodes

or fruit washed with washing-up liquid. And I'm the daughter of a cleanliness obsessed mother.

I do wash salad stuff, but that's only to remove the soil.

I think the fact that millions of people (myself included) never wash fruit and are in fine fettle proves you don't need to.