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
The benefit of scrubbing with warm soapy water is only slightly better than cool running water (maybe a vegetable brush for gunk) when it comes to surface contaminants of fruits and veggies.
On your hands or dishes you can make use of the benefit because they aren’t absorbing any of the soap chemicals, and people are good about rinsing their hands and getting chemicals off. It’s also more useful because your hands and dishes can become caked in things or oily the way fruit and veggies typically aren’t.
With produce people aren’t as good at fully rinsing them off, even if they do they can absorb chemicals first, and you end up ingesting the chemicals which isn’t good for you.
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