How to Clean Vegetables and Fruits

Between insecticides, water-borne infections, questionable hygiene, shipping contaminants, waxes and other worrisome potential challenges to food safety, how can you be sure your fruits and vegetables are clean?

Instructions

1. 

   Wash! Washing with plain, clear water really does remove most of the potential contaminants from fruits and vegetables. Use warm water for fruits (not hot) and cold water is best for crispy salad vegetables. Don't soak them. Especially delicate fruits like berries can loose much of their flavor this way. And wash just before using, not before storing. Tougher vegetables like potatoes and carrots can be scrubbed with a brush made for that purpose.

2. Commercial products on the market come in the form of washes, wipes, sprays and more. Most of them work very well and, if you want to feel secure about your foods, feel free to use them.

3. 

   I'm a little chary of using soaps, even gentle washing liquids. They are made to be used topically on skin, not ingested. Soaps may possibly replace one potential contaminant with another.

4. 

   If you want to make your own antimicrobial cleaner, all you need is to create a mixture of white vinegar and 3% hydrogen peroxide. Mix them in a spray bottle and spray your edibles. Then rinse them thoroughly and you're ready to go. This mixture is also good for cleaning kitchen surfaces.