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?

From the Milton website:

You don't have to have a baby to use Milton. Milton Sterilising Fluid can be used to disinfect kitchen work surfaces, chopping boards, wiping out fridges, microwaves, storage containers, pet bowls and bins. It can also be used to soak fruit and vegetables where the microbiological safety of such items is suspect.

I don't wash fruit bought from the supermarket at all; it's already been washed in chlorinated water. Never been ill.

I wash everything when I'm working in India though, in an iodine solution, soaked for 20 minutes minimum.

One of the most bizarre things on this thread is using an environmentally sound washing up liquid (Ecover) and then wasting gallons of precious water which is far more damaging to the environment.

I do wonder sometimes how the human race has survived and thrived for so long.

EliieFAntspoo that is a brilliant idea.

Except in my case it would be "when the DC arrive home from school each day, I lay them out on the patio and give them a once over with the jet wash."

SO much time and arguments saved. Genius.

Can I just confirm I wS joking I don't sterilise my grapes

one of the things i'm most looking forward to about moving back to the UK from West Africa is no longer having to wash my fruit and veg in milton. We do it as they come from roadside stalls and have likely been danced on by flies and sprayed with typhoid filled water. I never do it when I'm home, i revel slightly in eating an apple straight from the bowl/shop/tree - though I dont suppose British flies are that much cleaner!

My ex used to wash his potatoes with WU liquid. Not Ecover either. He claimed it was the same as washing plates in it.

It totally isn't. A plate is ceramic and non-absorbent. A potato is a root / tuber with a porous skin.

And he bought organic potatoes.

I dumped him for a number of reasons, but the smugness with which he insisted that he was right on this was right up there!

My ex used to wash his potatoes with WU liquid.

Is that a euphemism for rinsing your testicles in WD40?

I hardly ever say testicles - pronounced testiclay btw.

DH and I refer to them as lychees.

I don't wash them. I peel them. I don't know what he does.

Washing up liquid is far more dangerous to ingest than any "germs" on fruit

I assume the plastic gloves near the fruit and veg in some supermarkets are there in case they run out of little bags. Great fun filling them with grapes:

"kids! come here and give me a hand picking some grapes!" etc

There was a joke in my Standard Grade German exam about washing potatoes with soap, this thread takes me right back :)

I only wash fruit with water and rub it dry. The rubbing takes of a lot of the germs off. UV is a really good killer of bacteria and viruses too and I'm pretty confident that my immune system will take care of anything else on UK fruit.
However, I think if you are happy OP, carry on - every one has a habit someone else thinks is odd

We've been known to just eat fruit straight from the punnet......

Gloves in supermarkets are to be worn while handling the produce. Not to protect the handlers, obviously Where I live some look at you askence if you don't don the gloves
People sneeze and cough into their hands, use the toilet, handle money, the trolley which many others have handled before them, scratch themselves and their pets and some dig their nails into soft fruit to check for ripeness....and then handle what I'm going to eat.

OP I don't wash produce with dish washing liquid but I'd rather do that and then rinse than eat unwashed.
I used to wash with water and vinegar.
Now I own an ozone generating appliance I put fruit and vegetables in a tub or the plugged sink with water and ozonate the lot.
Imagine OP if people are and about your vegetable and fruit washing what they'll think of my method!!
Don't care
I think it's fine that others don't wash stuff and I know they're going to be alright and not get sick or anything so we should each do what feels right for us.

I was going to take a photo, but apparently it was my old dishwasher that had that setting, it must have seared in to my mind.

But I have found a pic scroll down to 6

ben-park.co.uk/2011/09/18/bush-dw5fiis-dishwasher-review/#.VbXPR0Eqfcc

EllieFAntspoo

Maybe you should try milton for your meat?

i detol'd a pear once.. now i think i may have been a bit strange haa

I do exactly as OP says. Remember Meryl Streep and Alar? Plain water doesn't get of the waxy finish on apples. I also dislike the common practice of washing up and NOT rinsing the dishes.