Those who wash fruit and veg

[Alpa2]

Recently read that some people are washing fruit in an effort to stop transmission.

Does this mean you bleach the food or wash with soap and water or wipe down with a dettol cloth?

This has amazed me... I’d feel worried eating something covered in soap like that?! Surely better to just buy fruit in a packet or leave it a couple of days?

I’ve no idea on transmission rates from hard surfaces like that but surely everyone would have it anyway if you can literally get it from a piece of fruit. My mind has been boggled!

@MiddleClassProblem honestly can't believe you're still discussing this.

Let me spell it out for you.

Let's say we had a poll to figure out which nation was better at using chopsticks, China or the UK. We could safely assume China would win. Does it mean no one in the UK can use chopsticks? Would you be on here saying "how dare you suggest I don't know how to use chopsticks?" (Quite probably, and over the course of several days.)

But no! Many people in the UK can use chopsticks! But as a rule we use a knife and fork, so fewer people can use them well than in China, a country where chopstick use is the norm.

Apply this reasoning to my initial statement. Far from suggesting that city types are dirty bastards who don't know a parsnip from a sprout, what I was saying was that all rural people know that vegetables are grown in literal shit, whereas perhaps not all city people know that.

Perhaps I am wrong. That is why I suggested a poll, to check my hypothesis.

I do hope it's clearer now, and that you are not here in 2022 trying to gain more followers to your cause to prove that I hate anyone who grew up in a place with a population that numbers over five figures.

I wash it all in mild soapy water then rinse it, I've always washed it anyway!

Can someone explain to me how rinsing in plain water kills germs from someone who’s been to the toilet and not washed their hands?

@HNY2021

Can someone explain to me how rinsing in plain water kills germs from someone who’s been to the toilet and not washed their hands?

Cover an apple in jam. Rinse under water and give it a good rub with either your hands or a cloth. What happens to the jam?

Sure, you probably won't get all of it. But a rinse and rub will wash away some of the bacteria. Whether you get ill or not depends on whether your immune system can find, recognise and fight the bacteria before said bacteria infects enough cells or produce enough toxin to cause symptoms. Ingesting less of it in the first place is always a good thing. In the case of some bacteria, the toxin causes the issue rather than the bacteria itself, and washing off most of this will help.

Same premise with pesticides, fungicides, insecticides, fertilisers and growth hormones- less is better.

@thelegohooverer

I assumed everyone washed fruit and veg. If you saw the colour of the water after the grapes I washed yesterday, you would too.

This is exactly what I came along to say! Grapes are filthy! I wash all fruit and veg unless I'm going to peel it or the packet says "washed and ready to eat". I use just water or sometimes a little detergent with a lot of rinsing.

@FunkBus it’s more insulting when you are talking about hygiene. Particularly when the area you think will be less will be much more culturally and ethically diverse. I’m surprised I have to spell that out for someone with such a superior intellect. Maybe you didn’t pick up on that. Either way, that reads volumes in my mind about you and how you view the world. Just because you didn’t really you were pigeon holing people in that way, doesn’t mean you weren’t. As someone from a “forrin” heritage, it’s a common assumption we are less adept at hygiene practices, something I have heard irl and plenty on MN.

I rinse fruit and veg under the tap I'd they've been bought loose, or if I'm unpacking shopping and have been touching all sorts of packets etc. The plastic packs the veg come in are more likely to have the virus on (although still a miniscule chance).

Slightly off topic but pesticide residues are best removed from fruit and veg by soaking them in a sodium bicarbonate solution.
A study on pesticide residues in grapes concluded that this was far more effective than water alone.
I've no idea if this would remove viruses though.

*on grapes rather than in grapes!

@Brysonette how long fo you have to soak them for?

12 minutes is effective (seems a bit precise but that was the length of time in the study)