So we are always told to wash our fruits and veggies prior to eating them to get rid of bacteria, pesticides, whatever. Assuming my romaine lettuce was contaminated with e. Coli or Listeria or something, how does rinsing the leaves under cold water for a few seconds remove all that bacteria? Especially because we are told to wash our hands with soap AND water, that water alone will not cut it?? Why is plain old water enough for veggies but not for our hands?
In: Biology
Soap does a really good job of trapping dirt and yuck. But just water does pretty okay too.
The big difference is grease / oils. Water won’t do shit by itself if something is covered in grease. This is why dish soaps like Dawn say “tough on grease” and not just germs.
So most of the pesticides and supermarket sneezes and dirt from being dropped on the supermarket floor we are try to remove aren’t particularly greasy, thus cold water is pretty effective.
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