I want to share with you how to clean produce simply and quickly. My mom introduced me to a "new to me" way of cleaning produce. I usually always just ran it under cold water and gently dried it off with a paper towel. While I think that is okay, trying the way she showed me, I saw how much cleaner our produce could get.
I am not an expert in this area, but I have seen a difference in the cleanliness of our produce. It is not as quick as running it under cold water, but it does not take a lot of time either.
Cleaning fruits and vegetables with vinegar
As we know there are multiple ways that food can become contaminated. One way is by animals contaminating them as the produce is growing. Another way is by all of the different hands that the produce comes into contact with. Cleaning fruits and vegetables with vinegar helps rid some of the bacteria found on them. Here is a step-by-step guide on how to clean produce simply and quickly.
1. Clean out the sink
Before you wash your produce, you want to make sure that your sink is cleaned out really well. Using soap and water wash out your sink really good. Then thoroughly rinse it out. Remember to do this for the drain stopper too. It is amazing how much film can add up on them. This may happen due to moisture in and around your sink for example. Cleaning out your sink before washing produce is an easy step you can take to prevent even more contamination on your produce.
When finished washing your sink, making sure to rinse it well helps to prevent leaving traces of soap on our produce.
2. Fill sink with cold water
Before filling the sink with water, here is a tip to see how clean your sink is. Take a clean paper towel and wipe out the sink. It should be free from dirt.
After checking it for dirt, etc., it is time to fill the sink with cold water. Depending on how much produce you have to clean, will determine how much water to add. You can add more if you feel you need to or drain some if you feel you filled it too much. Determine this before moving to the next step.
3. Add ice, vinegar and produce
A tip for determining how much vinegar to add is to fill a sink full of water to ¾ a cup of vinegar.
After filling the sink with cold water, add a couple cups of ice and ¾ a cup of vinegar to a full sink of cold water. Stir around the water, ice and vinegar and then add your produce. Let soak for about ten minutes.
4. Rinse
Once the produce has soaked, it is time to rinse it. I like to use a colander for this. Place some of your produce into a colander and run cold water over it on the other side of the sink. Be sure to rinse well so there is no vinegar left on the produce. Then place produce on clean paper towel. Continue to do this for the remaining produce.
When you are finished rinsing the produce, drain the sink that is full of water and vinegar. Now is the time to test how much extra dirt came off of your produce.
Take a clean paper towel and wipe it all across the sink. Compare the paper towel to the one you first wiped across your sink after you cleaned it.
5. Dry and store
Drying and storing your produce is a necessary step to make sure you can enjoy it all. With clean paper towel, gently dry your produce off. You then may want to put it away as is or prep it so that it may be easier to use later on. I like to cut up the produce into bite size pieces. I have found that prepping it like this makes it quicker to grab what we need if we may be in a hurry later on.
With the produce all clean and dry, you are ready to store it. A helpful tip I have found is placing our produce at eye level. Storing it in a drawer can make it easier to forget it is in there.
If you are looking for additional tips on ways to pick out and clean produce, please see according to the FDA.
Before and after pictures from sink
The first picture below is after wiping out my sink with a paper towel after I had washed it. It shows no traces of dirt. The second picture below is after I had soaked and removed my produce and drained the sink. I took a separate paper towel and wiped out my sink. This is what came off of my produce.
Conclusion
Cleaning produce isn’t the most exciting task, but it’s an important one. It will remove dirt that might be on the surface as well as any bacteria that may have been transferred from their original packaging during transportation for example.
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