Washing vegetables AIBU to ask what's normal

[Annabella92]

So I remember a few years back there was an ecoli scare and for a couple of hours the theory was it was from Spanish cucumbers, so we were reminded then we should be washing our fruit and veg. In the wholefoods shop you can buy special rinses to rinse off pesticides from your produce. My Dad always said that these are designed to withstand rain and watering do the idea that a quick rinse will do anything is ridiculous. I've also heard many tales of fruitpickers scratching their bums and noses and handling our unwashed goods.

So obviously I think about this a fair bit!!! What is normal? What do you do? When I'm cooking for my family I tend to be a very thorough fruit and veg washer. But if I'm making a quick sandwich I'll not rinse the Iceberg, I might give the tomato a quick rub on my sleeve and I'll eat blueberries out the punnet while I'm driving.

What do you do? Which do you worry about more, bacteria or pesticides or none?

@DappledThings you slay as my tween would say! 😀

I confess to not pre-washing bras though..

DP's gone one (or ten) better than you.

He's cut it up into pieces and put in into a saucepan full of 100 Celsius water to wash it until it goes bright green - and then he'll put it on the clean plates with the mash (also washed for about ten minutes in 100 Celsius water until they went tender) and some heat treated pork products, finishing off with a cleansing balm of Bisto made with boiling water from the kettle.

Do you reckon they'll all be safe to eat or should he have applied bleach and Fairy Liquid to them first?

Actually in addition to threadworm, she observed roundworm, hookworm and tapeworm. I was pretty surprised as you say you wouldn’t expect this in Britain. I remember my British flatmates at uni being confused when me and another non-British student said we were deworming ourselves, and couldn’t understand why we were washing our fruit and veg, or wouldn’t eat stuff out of the bag. Different individuals have different ways of doing things as this shows. But to original poster’s question: I thoroughly wash all fruit and veg to remove pesticides, parasites, and dirt.

Everything gets a 10-15 minute soak in a bowl of cold water with a tsp on bicarb, a scrub if visibly dirty, and a rinse under the tap. This was advised by a nutritionist as the best way to get rid of any creepy crawlies& chemicals.

I have no idea if this is a compliment or an insult!

Hiding your rudeness behind 🤣🤣🤣 emojis doesn’t wash (see what I did there 😜) with me. You wouldn’t dare say the people of India or Egypt, for example, had ‘questionable hygiene habits’ or any other rude sweeping statement insulting the whole nation but we are fair game, yeah?

The 'horror' expressed by @Elednia following your reasonable statement appears to be a huge overreaction. There's nothing nasty about your post at all.

I’m not hiding anything. I’m being extremely direct. I’m also laughing at you. You poor thing, so victimised. 🤣🤣🤣

It’s something I’ve never seen, as a Briton living in Britain. But clearly you have, and so it must be a “cultural habit” of ours.

Thank you. I certainly didn’t think there was. Although, I must admit to subsequent acerbity upon being informed I was being bitter and/or xenophobic.

I was quoting someone else’s comment, so clearly it’s something they’ve also observed. If you search variations of ‘rinsing washing up’ and ‘rinsing dishes’ in Advanced Search you’ll get a bunch of posts discussing this topic (I just checked), so it’s clearly something that other people think is an issue.

But, okay. You’ve never seen it. I made it up. 😁

...it is well meaning. 😊

I grew up spending most of my childhood in raw agricultural England. Pigs, dogs and cats sometimes wandered into the kitchen, and were chased out. Water was taken from a well. There was no fridge, only a dairy with stone sills and no glazing; so there was a meat and cheese safe on a stone base with perforated ventilation. I don't think there was EVER any food hygiene, but my generation of 12 kids brought up in this bugfest are all still alive and well and now we are nearly 70.

The fact that it comes up means that neither option is "normal", so "not rinsing" isn't a "cultural habit".

I'm getting fed up of you adding to your list of things that you disapprove of and declaring them to be part of British culture. It's not "blunt speaking", it's rude.

I would give everything a good rinse and rub under the tap unless it's labelled as ready to eat. But then I tend to be cooking the vast majority of vegetables I eat.

If something is being discussed, multiple times, because a lot of people in a place do it and foreigners find it odd, then it’s a cultural habit.

You can be as fed up as you like. I really don't care. You think I’m rude, I think you’re increasingly irrational and remarkably whiny. We all have opinions. 😁

@SWLondonLurker

I’m not British either but I don’t wash anything! But we apparently have hairy armpits, drink red wine with abandon, eat the bits of the animal nobody else will touch, eat unpasteurised cheese even when pregnant, scoff a baguette before we get it home, but take our shoes off because we don’t want the dog poo and public toilet mess traipsed through the chateau!

It's hardly unknown. There have been many outbreaks of infection and a number of cases of people dying from e.coli on for example unwashed spinach...

I soak all mine in Bleach for a good 48 hours … gives me time for an enema to rid myself of any Worms.

At the end of the 48 hours I throw it all away, to ensure I don’t catch e-coli

I follow the food stands agency advice of washing under cool running water and making sure the skins are carefully rubbed to remove any detritus. For info: peeling is advised for at risk groups (elderly, under 5s, chronic illnesses inc any conditions that compromise immunity) as this removes the bacteria that can cause food carried illnesses in the most susceptible.

I wash fruit and salad stuff - not veg that i'm going to peel, roast, stir fry or boil unless it has soil attached

My consultant tried to suggest not eating fruit and salad then said perhaps wash it. He's now at "please have the first bite of the apple before the horse at least and try not to drink out a hosepipe"

But despite being immunocompromised, my stomach is my strong point. Just don't ask about my tonsils

Not British. I wash. Everyone I know back home washes their fruit/veg. I didn't even realise it's an option not to!
My family and quite a lot of friends growing up have been producing (on large scale) fruit and some veg for the supermarkets. So I have been expose to that world. It would never occur to me not to wash what I am eating, even if picked ripe from the plant.
Fruits are occasionally covered in bird poo, and the mandatory waiting period between pesticides and sale....well let's say I wouldn't trust every producer on it....
About vegetables nowadays most are produced in controlled greenhouses so I would be less worried.

Dutch? 😅

Why not? Any generalisation is what it is. There’s always exceptions to the rule and yes hygiene in most of India is questionable. If you argue with this you have either not been there, do not know how to research on the internet or you’ve just got your head buried in the sand or likely politically correct. It’s not an insult just a fact. Is it all of India, no but enough to feed the stereotype.