With using a few simple tips, you can protect yourself and your family from the raw food poisoning. Before the washing of the fruits and vegetables, you need to clean the work area and the cutting boards and then you need to wash your hands good with soap and warm water.
If the equipment is not clean, bacteria from the surface of the raw foods could come in contact with them during cutting and peeling.
If you want your fruits and vegetables to be healthy for eating you need to wash them good and remove the bacteria and chemicals which are found on the surface, and rinsing it with water is often not enough.
The green leafy vegetables need to be separated and kept submerged in water for several minutes. Then the leaves need to drain and the procedure must be repeated. The water will be enough for vegetables with organic origin, but if you are not sure of the way of the cultivation, wash it with vinegar.
Mix two cups of water with half a cup of distilled white vinegar and soak the leaves of the vegetable in this mixture for 5 minutes and then rinse with clean water.
Dry with a clean kitchen towel. In this way the presence of bacteria is reduced, but not removed and the vinegar may partly affect the texture and taste of the food.
Vegetables like broccoli and cauliflower need to be kept in cold water for a minute before washing it with water or the combination of vinegar and water. Vegetables and fruits with thick skins, as tomatoes and mangos, need to be cleaned with a brush which is exclusively designed for raw foods before the washing.
You need to wash the fruits even if you do not eat the peel, like watermelon and melon, so the bacteria from the surface are not exposed on the area during the cutting. Most of the bacteria will retain on the remains on that area with which some foods may be covered.
In this case at first it is necessary to rinse the foods under running water and wipe them nicely and then prepare them for eating. Besides the vinegar, the combination of salt and lemon juice acts against pesticides and bacteria.
Fill a bowl with water and add a teaspoon of salt and juice from one lemon. Put green fruits or vegetables in this mixture and let them stay like that for 10 to 15 minutes.
Then rinse with water, dry and serve. If you do not want to wash foods with anything other than clean water, then soak them in water during the night and in the morning rinse them with lukewarm water.
Do not wash fruits and vegetables right after you buy them because in this way they will spoil faster. You can wash the food before use in the following ways.
The spray for the chemical removal has to act for at least ten minutes
Vegetables and fruits can be washed with the help of the spray which is simple to prepare. Buy a bottle with aerosols and wash it.
Add a tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice, two tablespoons of vinegar and 250 ml of water in it. Close it strongly and tightly then shake so you can mix the ingredients.
Spray the fruits and vegetables before use, leave it for ten minutes and then rinse them under running cold water. Wipe with a clean towel before peeling and cutting. After rinsing, the taste and smell of vinegar will not be felt.
The cabbage, eggplant, cauliflower and pineapple are the least treated foods
The intake of fruit and vegetables treated with pesticides can be reduced by buying organically produced food but this is financially impossible for many people.
If you can not buy organic foods, choose the ones which are treated with pesticides. In this group are cabbage, garlic, asparagus, tomato azure, quiver, cauliflower, mango, kiwi, avocado, pineapple and oranges.
However, in citrus fruit you need to pay more attention and the use of their skin is not recommended, for example in the preparation of cakes.
