Washing fruits and vegetables is a very important step before cooking, because, in addition to eliminating some pesticides and pesticides, it also allows removing microorganisms responsible for diseases such as salmonellosis, and other types of gastroenteritis.
However, before starting to wash the vegetables it is recommended to wash your hands, as they may end up contaminating the washed food again. After that, follow these steps:
- Wash the vegetables with a brush, warm water and soap, to remove the dirt visible to the naked eye; Leave the fruits and vegetables with the peel to soak in a bowl with 1 liter of water and 1 spoon of baking soda or bleach for 15 minutes; Wash fruits and vegetables in drinking water to remove excess bicarbonate or bleach.
There are also some chemicals suitable for washing vegetables. If any of these products are used, it is important to respect the amount to be used in the water, to avoid the accumulation of the substance in the body.
The use of products such as bleach, chlorine and stain remover is totally discouraged as they can be harmful to health, if they are not completely removed from food before consuming.
Other alternatives for washing vegetables
Other healthy and effective alternatives to eliminate microorganisms and pesticides from vegetables are the use of hydrogen peroxide or organic acids, such as citric, lactic or ascorbic acid. However, in both cases you need to be careful. In the case of hydrogen peroxide it is important to use percentages below 5%, as they can cause irritation of the skin or eyes, in the case of organic acids, it is always better to use a mixture of 2 or more acids.
To use these alternatives, you must dilute 1 tablespoon of the product for every 1 liter of water, leaving the vegetables to soak for 15 minutes. After that time, you should wash the vegetables under running water to remove the excess product and store the food in the refrigerator.
It is important to remember that consuming raw foods that are not properly washed can be dangerous to health due to the amount of harmful microorganisms and pesticides present in vegetables, which can cause problems such as stomach pain, diarrhea, fever and malaise. See the 3 diseases caused by contaminated food.
Because vinegar is not the best option
Although vinegar can be used to wash vegetables, it is not always the best option. This is because some studies indicate that, to function properly, vinegar needs to be well concentrated, that is, it is necessary to have large amounts of vinegar in the water to be able to eliminate harmful microorganisms and pesticides. In addition, vinegar can still leave some flavor in vegetables.
Thus, the other options are more economical, since lower concentrations can achieve the expected result.
