Influencers Don’t Wash Food Well

On all social networks, I constantly encounter annoying influencer behavior. Instagram, Facebook, TikTok are all filled with videos of someone (usually a white woman) subjecting fruits and vegetables to an elaborate cleaning and repackaging, presumably right after they get home from the grocery store. Not only does it look time consuming and expensive – all those plastic containers are not cheap – the extra effort is completely unnecessary and in most cases will actually shorten the life of your products.

I hate to nitpick Kelly, but her videos are a real guide to what not to do with your products, and showcases the techniques I see internet influencers promoting. Washing food well before you’re about to eat it, tossing tender berries into a salad spinner, and shaking everything with an indeterminate amount of baking soda: these are just a few of the things Kelly does but shouldn’t really do.

Don’t wash food until you need it

The moment you introduce your fruits and vegetables into the water, you start to encourage mold growth. So if you wash fruits or vegetables as soon as you bring them home, you can significantly shorten their lifespan by giving molds and other microorganisms the moisture they crave. Luckily, the best practice is the laziest: don’t “prewash” or “prep” what you’re producing. Wait.

If you don’t believe me, trust Dr. Don Schaffner, food scientist and eminent professor at Rutgers University. As Dr. Schaffner explained to us earlier , you should delay washing your food until you are ready to cook or eat it, then rinse it under cold running water:

If the product has tough leather, you can use a brush. This rinsing should take place just before you eat the product, Schaffner said. If you put freshly washed food in the fridge, he says, it’s more likely to get moldy.

You may have read that strawberries are an exception to this rule, but they are not. Strawberries are especially sponge-like, which makes them even more prone to mold growth when in contact with water, so keep them cold and dry until you’re ready for shortbread.

It is enough to wash the products with water

TikTok and the like will make you believe that you need salt, baking soda, vinegar, or special cleaners to keep your fruit completely clean, but you don’t need any of that. As we said earlier , food safety experts do not recommend using commercial cleaners, vinegar, salt, or anything other than water when washing fruits and vegetables. (I can’t figure out the logic behind using baking soda for this purpose, but I’m not a TikTok influencer.)

According to Dr. Schaffner, there is no evidence that vinegar will make your food cleaner. “My advice would be to save the vinegar for salad dressing with oil and vinegar,” he explained, adding that the money spent on specialty food cleaners “is better spent on buying slightly fresher produce.” And while salt water is used to check for fly larvae in berries, it’s not something you need to do at home. (Lifehacker Health Senior Editor Beth Skwarecki explains why here .)

When washing fruits and vegetables, your goal should be to remove dirt. To wash away all microbes to the last is an unrealistic and not particularly worthy goal. Running water and a bit of cleaning if you come across a particularly dirty part of the plant is all you need. (However, you must use soap when washing your hands, which you must do before touching food or food of any kind.)

Do not soak food in the sink

Another common influencer practice is to dump everything down a sink full of water and vinegar, rinse it out, and then drain the water. And while influencers often put on a big show out of all the little things they removed with all that whistle, leaving food hanging in a sink full of stagnant water can be harmful.

First, your sink is not particularly clean. According to Dr. Charles Gerb, a microbiologist and professor at the University of Arizona at Tucson, also known as Dr. Jerm , your sink is disgusting. “There’s more E. coli in the kitchen sink than there is in the toilet after you’ve flushed it,” he told Food & Wine . – The sink is a great place for E. coli to live and grow as it is damp and moist. The bacteria feed on the food that people throw away down the drain and what is left on the dishes in the sink.”

Cleaning the shell can obviously help cut down on the bacteria hanging in and around it, but an easier way to protect your apples from shell germs is to wash them under running water, which removes dirt and grime from your fruit. and down the drain without exposing it to potential germs that may be hanging in your pool.

Again, it’s a matter of moisture: the longer your fruits and vegetables are soaked, the longer they have to soak up water and the sooner mold can grow on them.

Do not wash berries in a salad bowl

I love my salad bowl , but it is the enemy of raspberries. The salad spinner acts like a centrifuge, hitting the food against the sides of the basket and spewing water out in the process. This is good for greens or even mushrooms , but it will destroy the tender berry. A bruised fruit rots faster than a whole one, so avoid spinning the lettuce and dry the berries on paper towels.

Don’t store limes (or anything else) underwater.

In the video above, Kelly washes a bunch of limes, then puts them in jars and fills them with water. A similar way of storing avocados was used last year, but as Skwarecki also explained , it’s a bad idea. Submerging foods in water for days or weeks can protect them from oxygen, but can encourage the growth of pathogens such as Listeria and Salmonella , which can get into the flesh of the fruit:

After an avocado has spent several days in the refrigerator, washing it won’t remove enough bacteria to keep it safe. FDA studies have shown that when avocados are stored underwater, bacteria from the skin can get into the edible flesh of the avocado, where they cannot be washed or peeled.

Limes are not avocados, but water is water, and mold and bacteria love water, so keep fruit in a (dry) food drawer like a normal person. (Anyway, I’ve never noticed that limes have a particularly short shelf life, so it’s not clear to me why you want to store them underwater to begin with.)

What’s with all these containers?

Influencers love to buy things like $70 cups , plastic egg holders, and berry containers that are “designed” to extend the life of your raspberries. I can’t comment on the effectiveness of any of these products, but I’ve never had a problem with a regular egg carton and almost all of the packaging your fruits and vegetables are sold in is already designed to keep them as fresh as possible. because keeping products looking good for a long period of time helps stores sell more products . (Never underestimate the motivating forces of capitalism.)

Maybe those special berry holders absorb moisture and prolong the life of the berries a bit, but in Kelly’s case, all they do is absorb the extra moisture she brings in, “preparing” the food ahead of time by processing it. point is somewhat controversial. (However, I like her bacon stand . Consider me under the influence.)

Unless your goal is to make a loud “ASMR” video with plastic snapping and water whistling, stick with the classic fruit and vegetable peeler: remove all moldy or damaged fruit and vegetables from the herd, then refrigerate until done. use, preferably in the original packaging. When you’re ready to eat something, wash your hands with soap and water, then rinse your fruits or vegetables under cold running water—even if you plan on peeling them —and scrub hard foods with a clean food brush. Dry on clean paper towels and cook or eat as usual.