The best way to clean your teacher's apple

by Marisa McClellan, Posted Sep 24th 2007 @ 11:35PM

We all know we're supposed to wash our fruits and vegetables before we cook or eat them, but how do you know how much washing is enough? And should you use soap or is water plenty? The editors over at Cook's Illustrated recently took on this question, washing apples and pears with four different methods. They discovered that using a scrub brush with water was fairly effective, removing 85% of bacteria, but that using a solution of one part vinegar to three parts water was the best. That method removed 98% of the bacteria.

A good way of keeping that vinegar around is to fill a spray bottle with the stuff and leave it by the sink. Simply spritz the item that needs to be cleaned with a little bit of the solution and rinse off with cold water. Ninety-eight percent clean fruits and veggies will result!

Via NPR
(Thanks for the tip, Megan!)

Filed Under: Magazines, How To
Tags: apples, bacteria, cleanliness, Cook's Illustrated, vinegar, washing

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Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)

9-25-2007 @2:21AM anata said... washing is to get pesticides off... not bacteria. Our digestive system can manage these bacteria without problems, not the pesticides & additional chems put on the fruits to make the shiny...
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9-25-2007 @8:56AM Beany said... Personally, I'm more concerned with removing the preservative wax that most apples are treated with- so I just rub it on my jumper.

Is it because of bacterial contamination that people are advised to wash fruit? I thought it was more to do with pesticide residues.
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9-25-2007 @9:22AM Adam Fields said... It's a sad day for your food supply if you need to spray your apples with vinegar before eating them.

Perhaps you should look into finding food that isn't contaminated with bacteria that will kill you.
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9-25-2007 @9:30AM Jon said... Has anyone ever gotten sick from the bacteria that live on a fresh, non-rotting apple? I just rinse the apple to get the dirt off. If I'm eating apples while picking, I just rub them on my shirt. People are too obsessed with food safety.
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