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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

to insist that fruit is washed before the children eat it?

62 replies

latchmeregirl · 02/02/2008 14:02

To quote my DH: "Why are you doing that? I've never washed a piece of fruit in my laugh and my mother hasn't either". Leaving aside the issue of his mother's whole approach to food hygiene and nutrition, surely fruit should be washed before it's eaten. Or am I neurotic?

OP posts:

colditz · 02/02/2008 14:03

Er .... should it? I never have! I don't know anyone who doesn't eat fruit straight out of the bag/off the bush!

JingleyJen · 02/02/2008 14:04

I wash most fruit and veg before cooking or eating - however - DS1 helps himself to grapes and apples during the day so sometimes they don't get washed.

serenity · 02/02/2008 14:05

Depends on the fruit - I rub the rubbable ones and wash the squishy ones, but if they get to them before I do it I don't get that stressed (obviously don't bother with the peelable ones)

kayzr · 02/02/2008 14:05

I'll wash carrots, potatoes etc but not fruit but each to ones own

3Ddonut · 02/02/2008 14:06

I like fruit to be washed before it's eaten, to wash off any pesticides and general muck, if it's out of the shop, you don't know who has had their mucky little paws on it! But I don't think it would be the end of the world if they ate something that wasn't washed once in a while.

lazarou · 02/02/2008 14:06

Hmmm, I used to but I don't really bother now. Plus, if I wash grapes in front of ds1 he won't eat them.

3littlefrogs · 02/02/2008 14:06

I always wash fruit, and insist on hand washing before handling food, eating etc.

We have had very few D&V type things in our house - only a 3 or 4 times in 19 years. (3 dcs)One was a virus and the others seemed to be directly related to fast food.

So no, YANBU

FrannyandZooey · 02/02/2008 14:06

yes you should wash it

if it is not organic you really, really should wash it. Lots.

serenity · 02/02/2008 14:07

I always wash grapes etc in case there are spiders in the bag

flamingtoaster · 02/02/2008 14:07

Definitely wash it thoroughly.

theyoungvisiter · 02/02/2008 14:08

I almost always wash fruit and veg - if they're from the supermarket I'm not worried about hygiene but about pesticides etc. If they're from the garden it's to make sure the cats haven't peed on them!

But I don't stress if we're on the way home from the supermarket and hungry, for eg.

LyraSilvertongue · 02/02/2008 14:10

Fruit definitely should be washed.
I once saw a tramp (or just a very grubby customer) handling the apples in Sainsbury's and putting them back. You don't know who's had their hands on your fruit before you eat it, or whether it's been dropped on some warehouse floor.
Also DS2 got very ill on his birthday (and missed most of his birthday party) because he got a stomach bug. I'm pretty sure it was the unwashed blueberries he ate the day before that did it.

theyoungvisiter · 02/02/2008 14:11

F&Z - even if it's organic you should still wash it. Organic produce does use pesticides and fungicides, just different ones from non-organic and not as routinely - and some are very nasty - copper-based fungicides for example which can be very toxic.

WanderingTrolley · 02/02/2008 14:12

For me at home, I only wash the grapes, as would anyone after an Incident of Bird Poo.

Other than that, I don't wash much fruit and veg, as I have guts of iron.

For children, I give everything a good rub under the tap, unless it's going to be peeled.

ZippiBabes · 02/02/2008 14:13

i know it should be washed for chemical spray reasons, but tbh i am totally inconsistent

it is one of those what youy cant see things

theyoungvisiter · 02/02/2008 14:14

sorry, Franny, reading my post back it sounds really patronising!

MumtoCharlotteMay · 02/02/2008 14:16

Anything that doesn't have a skin gets washed here. Fruit or veg, if it has a peel off skin like an orange then I don't bother, but generally all veg does and most fruit. You don't know where it's been and whats been sprayed on it. I always feel better knowing I've washed it.

policywonk · 02/02/2008 14:17

I know I ought to, but I almost never do.

3littlefrogs · 02/02/2008 14:18

Just as an aside - always always wash melons and similar crops before cutting into them. They grow at ground level, and in some countries the pickers pee on them as they are not allowed toilet breaks.

There have been cases of people catching nasty diseases because of bacteria being transferred from the skin into the fruit by the knife.

I wash fruit and veg even if I am going to peel it.

Fireflyfairy2 · 02/02/2008 14:19

I don't wash fruit.

Dh does. He will also wash everything when he buys it, so if I lift an apple from the fruit bowl I know he has already washed it, hence my laziness regarding washing.....

FrannyandZooey · 02/02/2008 14:22

LOL don't worry it was very informative!

a friend once got a form of hepatitis and her gp said it could have been from unwashed fruit and veg I don't know if this is bollocks

LyraSilvertongue · 02/02/2008 14:24

threelittlefrogs
I'll definitely wash ALL fruit from now on. I never used to bother washing melons, mangoes etc.

3littlefrogs · 02/02/2008 14:25

Yes - hepatitis is one of the nasties that is contracted via unwashed fruit and veg. Cases have been published in medical journals.

FrannyandZooey · 02/02/2008 14:27

how does it get there? is it from the soil?

northernrefugee39 · 02/02/2008 14:28

3 little frogs- eugh- ! the imagination can go places when you start on things like that!We always wash non organic fruit.

I remember a woman once saying to me when my dd was really small- a while back- that grapes are one of the worst fruit for having toxic sprays on them as they're so suceptible to mould.

Apples and carrots are meant to be covered in chemicals too.
We
do it for the chemicals- not the bacteria- if you go by that you'd hardly touch anything- have to wear gloves to take out your money, or wash every time you opened a door wouldn't you?

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