Should You Wash Your Bananas? You Might Be Surprised With What Experts Say
Does This Sound Bananas?
Are we getting a little too concerned about germs? It seems these days that you can’t go anywhere with out seeing a container of hand sanitizer on the counter encouraging us to squirt some on our hands to get rid of the nasty germs you’ve encountered. Is it going too far when you are told you should wash your bananas? You might be surprised by what the experts say.
Do we really need to start doing this, or is it just internet nonsense? There’s an article making the rounds that says we should all be washing our BANANAS. (No, that’s not a euphemism, guys.)
It seems pointless unless you’re some weirdo who eats the peel. But the idea is any bacteria on the outside can still get on your hands, and in your mouth.
The Experts say…
A senior director at something called the International Food Information Council says to wash your bananas under clean, running water before you peel them. You don’t need to use special veggie wash. Just water is fine. But that’s not all. She says we should really be washing our AVOCADOS too. It might be even more important than washing bananas.
On the knives edge
Like any type of produce, the outside can get contaminated with bacteria. But the reason they’re more important to clean than bananas is because we CUT INTO avocados, and the knife can drag some of that bacteria into the part you eat.
The same advice holds true for anything with an inedible peel. So, things like onions, melons, oranges, and pineapples too. They say if you want to be as safe as possible, you should be washing all of those.
Fruit wash
We keep a bottle of fruit and vegetable spray cleaner in our kitchen next to the sink. You will find it in most grocery stores in the produce section. All you need to do is spray the fruit and rinse it off. Very easy to do and we find it to be a good habit that we have gotten used to doing with all of our fruit. Now I suppose we will be adding bananas and avocados to the pre wash routine.