Do you need to wash food before eating it? - Big Questions - (Ep. 230)

A monthly show where we endeavor to answer one of your big questions. This week, Donovan Norman asks, “Is it necessary to rinse off apples and such before eating them?”
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[hotsistersue]

I rinse my produce in a bowl of water with about a tablespoon of distilled white vinegar. It strips the pesticides, dirt, and is a natural anti-microbial, so your produce will last longer.

[simone]

I now know not to wash meats, but to tell that to a grandma who has been doing that her whole life is fruitless.

[argella]

There are some grains you should rinse before cooking too, rice being one of them. Not because of germs, but rinsing the rice helps get rid of some of the starches that make it less fluffy when it's done cooking.

[gregjohns]

Yes, definitely wash your produce before you eat it. I work in a warehouse that ships that stuff. It gets dropped on the floor all the time. Unless it's damaged we just put it back in the crate an ship it out.

[LeoMRogers]

I think I've read that description before.

[talideon]

If you live in Europe, where eggs aren't washed before they get to you (it preserves the cuticle, keeping bacteria out of the egg proper), then it's a good idea to wash them as you use them.

[alinasuzuhara]

You are only talking about bacteria but what about the pesticides on fruit and vegetable ? I'm really curious how bad it is to eat the residues

[theguardian]

I'm a simple guy. I see Craig in a video, I click like. Dude cracks me up.

[kevind]

Always thought you rinsed fruit to remove the pesticides

[TheTexas]

"It's necessary to wash me before you eat me" cmon man. Don't make it that easy

[jaimie]

The description doesn't match the video. But that's okay. Craig makes E. coli fun.

[pvtpaink]

What about Kiwi/Chinese Gooseberrys?

You don't wash eggs from a store (in the US), because they've already been washed. You don't wash eggs out of your coop/ fresh eggs, because it washes an important layer off that allows you to not have to refrigerate them for a week & naturally protects from contamination.

[faST]

Wait so people dont wash their foods? I always figured that is just common knowledge.

[erinboes]

We aren't supposed to use soap to wash our fruits & veggies because soap might not be safe to eat, but we are encouraged to wash our hands often, especially before eating, presumably often putting the recently soaped hands in our mouths and directly on our food?

[sdavidson]

I learned while living in Hawaii that several people wash their rice before cooking. This blew my mind... is that necessary? I still do because I like the texture of washed rice better.

[CBDroege]

But if you don't live in a country that washes their eggs before selling them, you need to wash them first. How can you tell? Two things. The eggs will, mostly, be stored outside the refrigerators in the store, since leaving them unwashed helps preserve them. AND you will usually find that the eggs even look dirty. They have smudges and sometimes even feathers on them. You gotta wash those, but only RIGHT before you use them.

[alpines]

Home grown is still best because there are beneficial bacteria found in soil that even fight/prevent certain cancers.
All these outbreaks of e-coli are from the industrial process.
Most bacteria are beneficial.

[ageedtahir]

This host is my favorite. He's surprisingly funny

[eideticex]

The other side of meat and eggs is that they are washed in bleach, rinsed and then dyed back to their original color. With eggs that doesn't bother me in the slightest but meats I think I'll stick to rinsing my meats in the sink. At least with eggs the parts that could possibly have dried on bleach are not consumed, meats however will be. It's important however if you do disregard that advice like I do to do the appropriate cleanup before handling anything else on that counter or in that sink. Last thing you want is to rinse a harmful bacterial off then dump a sack of potatoes in the sink to scrub the bacteria into their surface.

Also the one thing that really bothers me when I eat any potatoes that anyone else makes. You have to actually scrub those things, you can't just touch them with a sponge or scotch pad and call it clean. Yes the color gets lighter when you do scrub them, that's because your scrubbing the dirt off from them. It makes a world of difference on taste of those things, poorly washed potatoes really do taste like dirt when you start to clean them properly and lose the taste for dirt.

If your thinking that old addage of: "god made dirt, so dirt don't hurt" applies. I'd like to point out the myriad of very dangerous chemicals found inside of dirt, like cyanide. Also that if this god made the Earth and the heaven, then it stands to reason that god made the sun which hurts hella bad millions of miles away.

[ResortDog]

You should always wash your food, fresh prepackaged vegetable stuff too.