I've never tried it...but wanted to make a link so it would be easier.

I think you could just use a tiny bit of bleach in a wash for your veggies and it would clean them as good as possible. I know that people who have serious immune system issues are told to wash their veggies with a tiny bit of bleach.

Here is a link that might be useful: fitwash

I agree with Ruthie (Good to hear from you Ruthie!) that plain old bleach is just as effective and a lot cheaper, use no more than 1 part bleach to 10 parts water (we use 1:20). On skin vegetables you can even add a drop of dish soap like Dawn if you wish to the water (in addition to the bleach) to cut the surface waxes and grease.

Dave

I third that bleach idea if you really feel you must wash your produce with something besides water.

According to the FDA: "No soap or special solutions are necessary; plain, cool water is the best agent. Solutions designed to wash produce have not shown any advantage of reducing pathogens on produce over using cool running water."

Be sure to wash your own hands, though, when cleaning produce, and things like melons should be thoroughly scrubbed even if you don't eat the skin because the knife going through the rind can pick up the contaminants on the skin and carry it through to the fruit.

Annie

Better and friendlier than bleach is to just keep a spray bottle of white vinegar around. It does more to clean off the waxes, etc sprayed on veggies than bleach does. The acid of the vinegar upsets the pH of most bacteria and allows you to knock them off the produce.

Please, do not use bleach or soap on your foods. It can leach the toxins into the foods. Plain running water has been shown to be the best cleaner.
We do not suggest spending money on the Fit stuff and having it no more effective than water.

I purchased the Lotus Home Cleaning System last spring & run every store-bought veggie through it after rinsing with water.

You need a salad spinner for drying off the leafy stuff for salads after use.

What do you think of this?

Here is a link that might be useful: Lotus Home Cleaning System

I have enough gadgets in my home that I'm avoiding buying any more. I was everything in my kitchen sink....what I use and how much effort I put into it depends on what I am washing but truthfully...I don't feel the need for any fancy cleaning equipment....If a person can afford it, wants it, needs it and can store it...why not?

Please, do not use bleach or soap on your foods. It can leach the toxins into the foods. Plain running water has been shown to be the best cleaner.

No offense Linda Lou, but both bleach and mild soaps are commonly used in organic gardening for both pest and disease control and have been for many years. They pose much less threat to the vegetables and the consumer than do many of the common garden chemicals.

Soapy water spray (1T in 1 gallon of water) is a staple gardening tool for controlling aphids, whiteflies, mites, fungus gnats, etc. and the plant and the fruit are both liberally sprayed several times during the growing season. And a 10:1 mix of chlorox bleach is commonly used for controlling bacterial diseases in the garden.

So I can't agree that using either of them poses any problem for the produce being washed in the kitchen. If they do, then it was already too late before the produce was even picked. But I'll risk a dilute solution of either on them on and in my veggies rather than using Sevin or Malathion in the garden. JMO

Dave

Hi all! New to the forum here. Hope to learn some great remedies and get some great advice from ya'll.

I had seen something similar in my grocery store and did a little research. Of the seven ingredients listed on the manufacturer's website (water, oleic acid, glycerol, potassium hydrate, baking soda, citric acid, and distilled grapefruit oil)three are considered industrial chemicals in the form they are listed. As far as baking soda goes, I have that at home. I also have citric acid (main ingredient in lemon juice), and water. I have always used good old fashioned water to wash my food that I eat, drink, and can. But I also buy organic, or more often, grow the food myself, so it doesn't have the pesticides, or chemicals that other foods might. So I guess it boil down to personal preference, but I would skip the fit and stick to water. (add some lemon juice and baking soda to the water and you got yourself a homemade version!)

Plus, they don't list what type of plastic they use to store the product, and I don't know if it's A.) leaching chemicals into the product B.) recyclable C.) organically produced. I personally would not get it.

Here is a link that might be useful: Fit Ingredients

Just because something is natural doesn't necessarily mean it's automatically safe. Botulism toxin is natural, if you think about it. They're not synonymous.

I get picky where foods I eat fresh are concerned, because you don't have the cooking process as a safety check. But, I prefer to deal with safety of fresh produce by sourcing it from a known place I trust, than trying to remedy a defect like possible contamination after the fact.

I wash my produce, even the produce I grow myself. But, it's washed in plain water. My garden is fertilised with aged chicken manure, lol and I still just wash it in plain water. I grow organically and pesticide residue isn't an issue. I can for winter use, and don't buy produce out of season at market, because I don't know the sourcing.

I also grow my own fruits, but if I do have to buy some it's done from local orchards, and even things like apples you'd expect waxed in a market, aren't at this orchard. I get them before they get processed. Then I wash them. LOL.

The manufacturing process for convenience produce is a possible contamination point at each stage of production. I feel much more comfortable, for instance, buying a head of lettuce than a bag of lettuce, because I can peel off the outer leaves and what's underneath has probably not been exposed to much of anything. But in an industrial area, of course processors must rely on sanitary rinsing.

I've never purchased a home food sanitising solution, but if that makes a person feel more comfortable to use it, I think it's fine. It's just that for the most part, I am the source of our food, and the processor and I know how it's handled from the seed to the table. I guess that's the ultimate foodie control freak.

I don't know, but my guess is that home sanitizing deal turns the water into peroxide.
As far as using soap and bleach on the food in the kitchen, that comes from FDA. They state not to use it on foods since neither are considered safe for consumption.
I understand that many do use them on the garden. I use soap on my roses sometimes.

And, of course, we have conflicting information from Government agencies. A million years ago, in another life, when I had the bar and grille, the Health Department instructed us to add a bit of bleach to the water the bar glasses were rinsed in. That was backed up by State health agencies and authorities.

So, if a bit of bleach is not safe for human consumption, why in the world would those same authorities tell me to use it to wash bar glasses. Or use it to sanitize hot tubs and swimming pools, for that matter?

Like Calliope, I raise most of my own produce and I used aged cow/horse manure as fertilizer. Still, I wash my vegetables in fresh water in my kitchen sink, and I use a scrub brush when I think it's warranted. The scrub brush gets run through the dishwasher, where the dishwashing soap contains...yup....you guess it. Bleach.

Annie

The difference is the glasses and utensils are not porous like fruits and vegetables. You aren't going to be eating the glasses. Plus, as the bleach sits it dissipates. That could also be a factor in using it on plants as they grow. If you mix up a sanitizing bleach solution for kitchen use, you need to throw it out every few days since it dissipates.
My dh had tons of bleach where he worked. They had to get rid of it, so he brought a bunch home for me to store for my own use. The last I opened was really weak, almost like water. It was nice while it lasted.

Well, glasses and utensils are not porous, but many communities add chlorine to their drinking water to sanitize it, and hundreds of thousands of people drink it, so it's consumed. It's also used to sanitize swimming pools and hot tubs and people come into direct contact with much larger amounts than they would by washing their vegeetables with it.

But you're right on the dissipation, which is why it probably doesn't really do any better job than plain water does.

Annie

Ok, a little input from the bug ridden, mucky UK. As some of you will know over here we have horrendous attitudes to hygiene and don't even 'can' our jam! Not surprisingly we don't have special products for washing vegetables either. And I have never seen any recommendation to add bleach to food washing water. Indeed, it is actually discouraged (see link)Bizarre as it may seem we are supplied at a very reasonable cost with clean drinking water which comes out of our taps (faucets.) In our primitive way we consider this to be a great resource for washing vegetables and fruit. Here is a sample method. 1. Pick/buy lettuce 2. Fill sink with cold water. 3 Sloosh lettuce in water for a while. 4 Remove lettuce. 5 Empty sink and refill with more water. 6. Sloosh lettuce again. 7. Repeat til bored and finish under running water. 8. Spin lettuce. 8 Eat lettuce. 9 Live to tell the tale.

Like calliope I do not buy bagged salads etc - largely because they have little flavour after all the treatments they go through. But also because I don't know exactly what has been done to them.

Here is a link that might be useful: How to clean vegetables and fruit

LOL, Flora, I absolutely agree. As I said, I use plain water and even the government which tends to be extremely over-protective says that plain water works as well as anything else.

Here we also have clean water that comes from the tap, however, many of us are not smart enough to utilize it. Instead we buy bottled water. A foreign company has a water bottling plant just a few miles from me. Yup, we pay a foreign company to pump OUR water out of the ground and sell it back to us in plastic bottles which will then sit in landfills and not degrade for decades. Go figure.

As for the produce, I use good composted cow manure to grow it and still feel that plain water gets it clean enough.

Of course, I'm cheap enough that I break open a couple of vitamin C capsules to keep fruit from oxidizing, instead of paying exorbitant amounts of money for Fruit Fresh...

Annie

Flora,
That is as sensible of a website as I have seen. Very well done. I am glad you posted it.
Annie is right. To me it is ridiculous to buy water in a bottle ! It is the same tap water we drink. I cannot believe the waste of money on this stuff. People are so gullible. I agree, Annie, I think vit.c tablets crushed or open capsules are a smart way to go. I was just fortunate enough to find a whole dozen jars of Fruit Fresh marked down really cheap. Cheaper than getting the vit.c tablets, so of course, I snatched them all up.
It amazes me how people buy a boiled egg, too. One boiled egg in a little package for over a dollar !! You can get a whole dozen for that. They even buy one potato wrapped in plastic wrap for some enormous price. If they only want one potato, at least buy it out of a bin and not wrapped in plastic wrap.
I had some gal that wanted me to show her how to can peaches. She came to my home with a box of individually wrapped peaches in a box ! She paid some crazy price for them. At least 3 time what it should cost for a box of peaches.
Another gal was buying fruit by the pound in the grocery store for some very expensive price to can. I told her it was much cheaper to go on the next street over from the grocery store and get a whole box at the produce market. The produce market is literally right behind the grocery store. You can see it from the parking lot. She was amazed. Wow ! You can buy a whole box cheaply ? They have no clue how to buy produce.
Me, I am crazy. Why do I collect more food to deal with when everything is so full already ? Just because it was free !! I better get going on those apples.

Linda Lou, I think we can't help ourselves. I dried nearly two bushels of apples this year. Why? Because they were on sale for $6.99 a bushel, so of course I got two. I couldn't help it and then I just kept kicking myself while I peeled, sliced and cored.

I'd probably buy the Fruit Fresh too, if it were cheap enough but my word, that stuff is expensive if it isn't on sale.

As for the plastic wrapped potato, Elery's son bought a sweet potato all sealed in plastic "ready for the microwave". I sure don't know why, but he didn't eat it. It's been on Elery's counter for FOUR MONTHS now and it still isn't moldy or soft or anything. I can't imagine what they did to the darned thing before they wrapped it, but it's just not right....

Annie

I just received a food producer's fact sheet two days ago from our University extension. I thought the timing was serendipitous, because of this thread. It was giving rates and times for exposure of fruits and vegetables from the production field to chlorinated water. So, it's done in processing water for produce commonly at the commercial level. I know it's routinely used in flume water in apple production. (flumes are the water troughs apples are floated and transported in on their way to sorting and storing.) It had a good section on manure management when used as fertiliser, and also when you use draft animals instead of fuel driven machines in farming. My FIL used mules clear on up to the early sixties before he bought his first tractor. The publication said that the drivers should stop and scoop up the manure after the equine does number two immediately. LOL. I think my my FIL is prolly rolling over in his grave now. If you ever see very large boxes of Pampers at your feed mill, you'll know why.

Oh dear .... I think I'm having a fit of the vapours. BUY a boiled egg? Can you actually do that?

And what is Fruit Fresh? I use lemon juice or vinegar if I'm not going to eat or cook the fruit immediately. I don't buy Vit C - I eat fruit and vegetables so why would I buy pills?

And Calliope I am so glad you used 'serendipitous'. I was once told off at work for using it in a report because 'there's no such word'. So now I use it as often as possible!

Flora, the ex husband and I owned a health food store for several years. I have a lifetime supply of vitamin C capsules from an accidental "overstock" , so I might as well use 'em....

Fruit Fresh is just ascorbic acid and some "additives" that do nothing to speak of. It's the same stuff that's in lemon juice, citrus fruit and vitamin c tablets/capsules, only well marketed.

Yeah, you can buy a hard boiled egg, although I certainly don't see why.

Annie

Flora, not only can you buy one individually wrapped boiled egg, you can buy frozen peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, so you don't have to expend the effort to spread them on bread yourself. One can buy one potato wrapped in plastic. And tea, already brewed in a large plastic container so you don't have to ........gasp...........brew it yourself. One can buy bacon already cooked so you don't have to fry or nuke it. Nevermind you'd nuke it anyway to warm it up to eat, but that might take.......gasp....a few seconds longer to fry it.

I feel like a foreigner in our own markets, and it's getting more bizarre every time I go marketing. It's 'all about' convenience and even convenience foods are now assembled so you just open them and eat them.

It's different strokes for different folks, and it's not for me to judge other's habits. But, it's increasingly difficult to find just simple staples, as they come from the field or tree. I was looking for common turnips (neeps) and went to two different stores before I finally found them at a large chain and they were listed as and priced as a specialty or gourmet food. A TURNIP!

I remember reading somewhere that a diluted vinegar solution could be used to wash fruit. Seems like a happy medium between plain water and bleach or soap. I use vinegar for all sorts of household cleaning--is there any reason why it wouldn't work on fruit, too?

Flora, I laughed about your being chastised at work for using 'serendipitous'. Tell them to look it up if they need proof--it is in the Oxford English Dictionary (the online edition, anyway)! What more could they want?!

joannaw, I don't see any reason NOT to use vinegar to clean produce, I just don't think it's going to do a better job than copious amounts of plain, clean water.

Of course, if it makes anyone feel better to use "something" to clean produce, it is a fairly innocuous product that won't do any harm, so I say go for it if you are inclined.

I use white vinegar to clean windows and mirrors and kitchen surfaces and a mild bleach solution to clean counters after cutting up chicken, etc., so I wouldn't hestate to use either of those to clean produce, if I thought it would make a difference.

Annie