How to properly wash your vegetables and other produce. Eating healthier requires that we eat more salads and more fruit. Industrial farming uses pesticides and organic farming may use manure. Removing harmful organisms such as e-coli bacteria and harmful chemicals. To avoid illness from unintended ingesting of bacteria or pesticides, we should wash our lettuces, fruits, and other ingested foods. Washing foods is easier than you think according to an article that was recently published in the Washington Post. According to the article, water is sufficient as is washing your hands while handling foods. Check out this article for some great advice on how to wash your vegetables. Yes, You Need to Wash Your Produce. Here’s How. You don’t need much more than cold water, either. By Becky Krystal I get it. Time is tight, and people are hungry. But if you’re tempted to skip washing your produce or give it only a cursory splash, you’re doing it wrong. Food-borne illness is so often thought of as a scourge of meat and seafood, but if you look at some notable outbreaks, many of them — romaine lettuce, cucumbers, melons — have been tied to produce. So let’s be smart about this. First, it’s best to wash produce right before you use it, because dampness encourages bacteria growth and therefore spoilage, food research scientist Amanda Deering of Purdue University told The Washington Post. The Food and Drug Administration recommends washing produce under cold running water — go ahead and wash your hands before and after you do the food, too. (If your bag of salad or other greens says it’s pre-washed, no further work is needed.) Scrub with a brush and/or gently rub the produce with your hands, depending on what you’re cleaning. Water is sufficient, so don’t use soap or bleach or even commercially made produce washes. Read more