Author Topic: Why is washing fruits and vegetables with water considered sufficient?  (Read 1661 times)

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Rasel Ali (IT)

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No, it will definitely not help the bacteria.

You need to understand the relative scale between us and bacteria. To us, running something under water for a few seconds seems very gentle. To a microbe, it's the mother of all tidal waves. Most bacteria aren't equipped with anything that would let them actually hold on to the surface of a carrot or piece of lettuce, so when the wave hits they just get swept along with it. That's also why you can sometimes drink from clear streams or rivers, but trying to drink from standing water will almost always make you sick.

The reason we need soap to clean our own hands is because our skin is covered in a thin layer of oils that will provide a barrier between the water and whatever bacteria may be thriving in it. The soap creates an interface allowing those oils to bind with the water as it passes, stripping off the barrier. Fruits and vegetables generally don't have the same kind of barriers to contend with, so water alone is sufficient.

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