How to clean salad and soft fruit ?

[20mum]

Rinsing in plain water cannot be adequate for killing potential virus on food that won't be cooked.
Has anyone solved what to do?
There is a foodwashing liquid from Ecover. Then, someone elsewhere thought vinegar was able to kill corona. The only other thìng in the house is the stuff for cleaning baby bottles.
There's no official advice, which is odd because food processing seems far from secure, as the source of many covid outbreaks Lots of foods never intended for cooking must be grown, harvested, processed and packaged, all in what could be high risk circumstances.

[MRex]

Water rinse is fine. You need to get sufficient particles for an infectious dose; 3 half-degraded particles washing down your throat isn't going to infect you. Any build-up of soap products won't be good for your digestive system, so don't do that. As above, the chance of you digging into your salad within 72 hours of it being picked are fairly remote if you aren't in the countryside and buying from the farm next door anyway.

[Greydrapex]

People wash fruit ?!

[Scottishgirl85]

I never wash fruit, not even with water

[ListeningQuietly]

I shop from places that check their food chain.
I do not and will not disinfect any of my shopping.

[Ontopofthesunset]

Look, lots of people have given sensible advice on here. The virus does not live for longer than 72 hours on soft surfaces like fruit and veg so even if there was any on your soft fruit or salad, if you left it in the fridge for 3 days and then rinsed in water you would be fine. Contracting the disease from shopping is in any case very unlikely - it is a theoretical risk as the virus can survive for some time time on surfaces, but it is very unlikely in most plausible situations that enough virus would be o the surface and would survive to be a threat. Even after 24 hours the potency of the virus has diminished.

[vodkaredbullgirl]

I dont eat fruit or salad, if i did probably wash under the cold tap. I dont even wipe down shopping either.

[shinynewapple2020]

Mostly I just run under cold tap. However at the height of the virus I washed in weak washing up liquid solution and then rinsed. Still doing that with things which are not prepackaged .

[16943389ao]

I disinfect all of our shopping. From my research there seems to be no evidence of transmission through food. Most of the soft fruit I buy comes in packaging so I tip it straight into a bowl etc and give it a quick wash before eating. I have to confess at the height of the pandemic I washed blueberries with washing up liquid but can’t imagine this is good for health! I now tend to assume that bagged salad etc has been bagged for at least 24 hours by the time it gets to me and just give it a rinse. There doesn’t seem to be any evidence that the virus can survive on food for long, I’ve had a really good look at this, but if your worried just pop it in new packaging then put it to one side for 24 hours before eating.

[Bol87]

*washing food under cold water, totally fine & normal. Soaking it in Milton is bonkers.

[Bol87]

Oh my good god. People have officially lost their minds. 🤦🏼‍♀️ Sterilising food?! Seriously?! Have we actually gone insane?

[Llamazoom]

Lots of lovely sarcasm on this thread. Nice.

You don’t need Milton or washing up liquid, put food in a colander, shake around under a running cold tap, washing food doesn’t kill germs, it washes the germs away.

Everybody should wash fruit and veg, ecoli and norovirus thrive in lettuce. Also I don’t want to eat poo particles left on an apple from a fruit picker after he’s had a crap and not washed his hands.

MN always seems to be very competitive when it comes to immune systems.

[MotherMorph]

My mum had a spray she used on fruit and veg when she was having chemo, but I cant remember what make it was. I cant think it's very mainstream as I havent come across anything similar in the shops.
I would imagine strawberries would be mouldy if you quarantined them for 3 days before eating??

[MonaLisaDoesntSmile]

You can boil them in bleach for an hour, I can guarantee that kills every virus particle there may be.

[eddiemairswife]

I am an 'older person'. In the colander and a quick rinse under the cold tap. People are so risk averse nowadays that I think they are more vulnerable to minor ailments than we used to be.

[Clymene]

There is zero chance of pre-packaged fruit and veg reaching your home within 72 hours which is the maximum the virus lives on any surface.

Please do not assume that people who are able to assess risk are not shielding.

[WinWinnieTheWay]

I just rinse it under the two and get on with my life.

[BogRollBOGOF]

@Mrsjayy

I am really shocked people are soaking food in milton does it not taint your food?

It's hortible enough after deep cleaning things like water bottles!

[BogRollBOGOF]

If I was concerned enough to believe that a normal rinse with water wasn't suffcient, I would just go without.

When I was taught to wash-up I was told to rinse the soapy water off everything as it was potentially carcenogenic. How true that is, I don't know and research on that kind of thing flip flops all the time anyway, but if I don't eat off soapy plates, no way do I want to eat soapy food, or worse, bleached food.

[Mrsjayy]

I am really shocked people are soaking food in milton does it not taint your food?

[TomorrowAlways]

Quarantine for 2/3 days then wash with water

[WallsKOL]

I suddenly feel very inadequate
I’ve never washed anything in my life . I don’t even peel my carrots (let alone wash) precovid or now.
Im 49 & never had a day off sick .
I scrap mould off the top of jam (my mum always did)

[sadpapercourtesan]

I spent about two hours yesterday individually rinsing homegrown salad leaves and then running them through the salad spinner in small batches. Nothing to do with coronavirus, I'm at war with the fucking aphids

I do not wash shop-bought fruit and veg.

[ListeningQuietly]

The virus only persists in its perfect conditions
and even then only for a few hours
and even then not proven to still be infective

does anybody have any evidence from ANYWHERE of a coronavirus being passed on via supermarket food?

Ingesting detergents is a much higher risk

[Mrsdoubtfireswig]

Quick rinse under the tap as did before corona virus. I read somewhere that even if virus was on food it would be killed by stomach acids and therefore no risk.

I would not wash in any sort of soap / disinfectant / cleaning solution as think chemicals are far more harmful than anything on the fruit / salad and plus it would wreck the texture and taste.

As OCD sufferer I do think your anxiety is off here - it is not normal to consider washing fruit and veg in any sort of cleaning solution, and you might to seek a bit or help and support in dealing with anxiety rather than doing it.

[RainingMeatballs]

Remember we don’t need to kill the virus, we need to wash it down the plug hole.