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

[latchmeregirl]

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?

The official Food Standards line is it is not necessary to wash fruit before eating it as the residual chemical levels are so negligable by the time they reach the shelf...

I was quite shocked when I heard this in a food politics lecture, I was also relieved because more often than not my kids help themselves straight from my shopping bags!!!

Nah. What do you think you've got an immune system for.

I always wash fruit because of the chemical sprays, it may be negligible but I eat a lot of fruit so it mounts up. I also wash the ready washed lettuce,ever since I heard what it was washed in.The other big point is wondering who has already handled it. I get very fussy on unwrapped food ever since I watched a woman in the supermarket squeeze about 10 crusty rolls before she picked one!! I was so shocked that I was speechless-I really regret not saying something to her.

wabbit- great ! that's the line I'm going to take
I was never worried about the germs,just all the chemicals.

oh god yes yes yes always wash fruit - just think of it's journey before it arrived in your shopping basket....flies, dirty hands, pesticides yuk!

Never wash it and never get stomach upsets. Admire people who do, though, just like I admire my BF who irons teatowels and her husband's underpants.

I rarely wash fruit and vegetables, not unless obviously dirty.

DD just helps herself to fruit from the bowl, and to carrots and cucumber from the fridge.

Never had an upset tummy or anything yet.

Just read rest of thread - maybe I ought to then. Eeek.

Extract from a Toronto report after a salmonella outbreak.

"While foods like chicken, eggs and dairy products were more traditionally associated with food poisoning, the incidence of illness caused by fruits or vegetables has been on the rise. Children have contracted E. coli from unpasteurized apple juice. Contaminated vegetable sprouts caused a major outbreak of E. coli in Japan."

So enjoy your unwashed fruit.

I never used to wash fruit, and thought 'Pish!' to those who did.

However, my ds (4) is extremely prone to catching threadworms, and who's to say the fruit picker hasn't scratched his bum before bagging up my conference pears?

So now I wash!!

I generally assume that someone has probably sneezed near my fruit, so I wash it.

Don't get too hung up if it gets missed once in a while though.

Bananapudding - with hot water and soap? Really?!

I always wash it and the children do their own automatically now. I'd worry about chemicals otherwise.