To think a lot of people dont actually wash fruit?

[TartanDr3ams]

Or are me and 90% of my colleagues gross?

Got some strawberries, blueberries and grapes on my break earlier and just plonked the punnets on my desk and told my workmates to help themselves.. a few people dive in, a quick thanks and back to work.

One colleague just made the monster of all fusses over the fact that ive not washed all said fruit and put into bowls and i quote "its absolutely barbaric that youre expecting people to eat right from the punnet they came in".

Maybe i should wash the fruit.. or maybe if you want to dig into my fruit you can wash it yourself?

What will a bit of cold water do though? Genuine question

I'm not sure that a quick swill under the tap will make much difference anyway. So no I don't

How is a rub of cold water going to get rid of all the bacteria people are mentioning?

I never wash fruit, but then i also eat a sandwich at the stables after mucking out and don't wash my hands first, so i am totally minging, but still alive and never poorly!

I don't wash fruit, never have

In response to a comment above about strawberries being grown in manure, my hens love scratching around and eating the horses muck heap and they used to produce awesome eggs (they retired from laying now). Nothing wrong with a bit of fermented grass. I didn't even wash the eggs

I'm a crazy fool & never wash fruit. Visiting child recently shamed me by asking me to wash his apple. Fair enough but it never even crossed my mind.

Like pp’s have said, a splash of cold water isn’t really going to get rid of the germs people have mentioned, and I’m sure nobody washes their fruit in antibacterial soap!
Saying that though I did find a little money spider half way through a punnet of strawberries I was eating once

I always do, I am surprised to see it seems the majority dont.

Strawberries are usually grown on manure.

Most strawberries in supermarkets have been as near to manure as my dog has to the Taj Mahal!

I do wash all the fruit except raspberries because it destroys them.

I'm always worried about ecoli - that sometimes seems to show up on unwashed salad.

l always do and if it is the red waxy apples l pour hot water on them from the kettle

If there’s obvious dirt I’ll give it a quick rinse but mostly no.

I never wash fruit. Or veg. Unless I buy potatoes from the farm shop in our village because they are actually muddy like potatoes were in the olden days

I don't wash fruit and I'm fine, but then again I'm a grubby cow bit more lax than most on MN!

I never used to, but i started doing so when i was pregnant first time (got toxoplasmosis anxiety!) and I kept it up, now it seems wrong not too. BUT i also wonder what a bit of cold water could realistically wash off. Any food hygienists/microbiologists around who could enlighten us?

Nope, never have. And am neutropenic
My consultant lectures me occasionally about not eating bagged salad etc and then does face when I share an apple with my horse

I always do, and I peel mushrooms.

But then, I also wash cans of Diet Coke, having once read about rats in warehouses pissing on the cans.

And let's face it, rat piss and chemicals on fruit and veg are probably better for me than Diet Coke!!

I've never bothered with most fruit, so I'm with the "never did me any harm" crowd, although I should point out the survivorship bias: the people who have been killed by a rogue gooseberry are not going to come on here and tell us!

Anyone got any scientific evidence that: 1. fruit has nasty stuff on it?2. washing it has any benefit?

I rinse some fruit - strawberries are often gritty and grapes dusty. But I think you'd have to do more than rinse to remove anything more than that.

I always do, and I peel mushrooms.

Ooh, I always peel mushrooms. But that's so I can eat the skin first because it is the BEST BIT.

Dirt and all

I’m eating an apple right now that I haven’t washed. I’ll let you know how it goes.

I do, but just a token rinse that is unlikely to do anything. I'm sure it's pointless but I do it anyway.

Also makes the fruit wet and with things like rasps if gone a bit squashy, gets rid of the juice. And yet, still I do it.

Obviously was highly ingrained when young!

This is a point of contention between me and my DH. I don’t wash it, he does.

I haven't washed a bit of fruit in my life, and ate fruit when DDT was still legal, so...

I do, always. But to be fair I just rinse under cold water which tbf isn’t going to do anything is it... I think it’s just habit now!