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?

I guess you could have every person in your office pass an Apple from person to person til it got to you, then eat it and still be alive, you probably wouldn’t die but it’s still unhygienic and gross.

In your opinion. In my opinion we'd have simply shared an apple and it would be no big deal.

I agree with @Akire , how is a splash of cold water supposed to get rid of germs? I am kind of selective, I wash grapes, raspberries and strawberries because they often have little bits which I like to get rid of. That's it though.

I do.

I don't just rinse it I soak it and rinse

I wouldn't of said anything to you though just not eaten any!

The act of washing removes bacteria. Using hot water soap, kills bacteria. So jut washing with cold water will remove a level of bacteria

Never washed fruit.

Not dead yet.

If you're advised to wash fruit how are they recommending that you wash them?

60 degree spin cycle, after it's finished collect your smoothie from the drain plug.....

Well im still here this morning to tell the tale after consuming pissy strawberries yesterday and so are all my sharing colleagues....however, rude colleague is not.

Not trying to cause a debate.. but all those with primary aged children who do wash fruit.. how does it make you feel that the fruit the kids are given in school is never washed and usually gets dropped 3-4times whilst being eaten? My job is 20% office based, 80% working in schools and residential settings and can guarantee you that fruit does not get washed!

60 degree spin cycle, after it's finished collect your smoothie from the drain plug.....

Genuine question here - how far are you all taking it?

I assume you're washing all the cans & bottles you get from the supermarket too right? Because urks like me have touched them with our fruity hands & rats & mice run over them weeing when they're in the warehouse.

Pointless washing your apple if you pour yourself a glass of squash from a rats-piss soaked bottle & then pick it up......

We wash ours with water and baking soda

But what do you wash the outside of the baking soda container with??

Right, it should go nice & quiet on here now as a hoard of MN'ers go off to frantically disinfect the contents of their larders!!

Now pass me a kumquat.....

There was another thread recently about washing fruit and veg. Someone soaked theirs in Milton !
I never do unless it is actually dirty. A rice in cold water won't wash pesticides or germs off, the pesticides are probably part of the fruit/veg and you need antibacterial wash or soap to remove bacteria or viruses. No point really

I don’t.

I’m not particularly happy thinking about where the fruit has been, but water isn’t going to do a thing to the germs that concern me, and I’m not washing my food in anti-bacterial soap, so I just try not to think about it.

Not trying to cause a debate.. but all those with primary aged children who do wash fruit.. how does it make you feel that the fruit the kids are given in school is never washed and usually gets dropped 3-4times whilst being eaten? My job is 20% office based, 80% working in schools and residential settings and can guarantee you that fruit does not get washed!

I am a TA and have to wash the fruit every morning. However I am usually cursing under my breath as I do it because I don't agree that it makes much of a difference. Not sure how unusual our school is but we were told in no uncertain terms that it must be washed.

Rinsing fruit under the cold tap will not kill bacteria or viruses - it is pointless, imo.

I wash it, especially if it has visible mud etc on it, as some celery I buy has, plus pak choi and stuff like that.

I also wash tomatoes, salad, kale etc. It says wash before use on the packet, probably for good reason.

Visible mud is different - no-one wants gritty food - but a quick rinse won't do much to reduce the bacterial/viral count.

I always wash fruits and vegetables - think of the number of mucky hands that have handled the produce. Apples rolling around on the supermarket floor etc etc....ewww....

Won't wash all of the chemicals off, but even 1% washed off is good I think.

Those peeps who don't bother to wash their fruit and veg...why bother to wash your hands then?

I’m another wanting to know what you are meant to wash fruit with? When you wash your hands, you are meant to spend twenty seconds at least, using water and soap. Are you washing your fruit to the same standard? Becasue if this is what it takes to clean hands, it will probably take the same amount of effort to clean your strawberries effectively.

Unfortunately, I can’t imagine the strawberries will taste so nice once they’ve had any kind of soap near them, so I will give it a miss.

It’s a strange argument “not dead yet”. Although I have little evidence I am going to presume we are all not dead yet and therefore what ever we have done thus far is ok because it didn’t kill us.

My DM would say “more by luck than judgement.”

I'm still boggling at the "wash with soap".

It’s a strange argument “not dead yet”. Although I have little evidence I am going to presume we are all not dead yet and therefore what ever we have done thus far is ok because it didn’t kill us

It's not though. Most people don't wash fruit, almost everyone eats fruit. If there were any real tangible danger to not washing our fruit, we would already know about it.

Those peeps who don't bother to wash their fruit and veg...why bother to wash your hands then?

Its not comparable. You wash your fruit in a splash of cold water, I wash my hands with hot water and antibacterial soap. Splashing my hands with cold water would be about as much use as your fruit washing: ie hardly any.

To those who wash their hands with hot water, just to let you know this is unnecessary. To actually kill germs the water would have to be boiling hot anyway. The physical action of washing and drying, combined with the chemical action of the soap, is what gets rid of germs. You can wash in any temperature water that you can manage for 15 seconds.