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Clean your produce before you clean your plate

BY JIM COLEMAN AND CANDACE HAGAN

Philadelphia Daily News

I would like to know if you recommend using fruit and vegetable washes that are sold in supermarkets. If not, is there a more effective way to clean fruits and vegetables? Can pesticides really be washed away? I would also like to know which fruits and vegetables should not be washed, and which ones should always be washed. --Mickel B.

Great questions... there are a lot of them, but they're all very good!

I am aware of the three or four commercial wash treatments that are available in stores, but I do not use them. I'm sure they are good products and I'm sure they have their supporters, but I believe a good scrub and a water wash will do the trick and there are studies that back that up. Either way, the point is that if you want to protect the people you are serving, you should wash your produce -- it's just common sense.

Although the fruits and vegetables that you bring home from the store may look clean, remember that somewhere between 4-20 people have handled them from the time they were harvested. I'm sure they are all very nice people, but that does not mean I want to eat out of their hands. And this doesn't even take into effect the invisible traces of pesticides that remain on the food. Even produce that is always peeled should be washed.

For example: if you cut into an unwashed melon, your knife is pulling traces of whatever is on the rind onto the fruit. There have been cases of E.coli contamination that happened this way. It's not the norm, but who wants to take the chance?

You can limit the amount of pesticide residue and bacteria by doing a few things. First, you will get rid of most of it by giving the fruit or vegetable a good wash or cold water immersion. Second, trim off the tops and outer portions -- especially with leafy veggies. Third, though you may lose some fiber, you will also lose contamination by peeling the food item. Cooking produce also kills bacteria. Another point is to try to buy your produce in season, when long storage and shipping aren't required.