Most of us wash vegetables by soaking them in a bowl of water with salt for 15-30 minutes and then rinsing them with clean water. The belief of many people is that the water needs to be salty and soaked a little longer so that bacteria can be killed and residual pesticides can be washed away.
This method has been experimented by scientists and concluded to be ineffective. The rate of parasitic infection after washing vegetables is still 51.9 – 82.6%.
The CDC in the United States has just guided on how to safely wash vegetables at home during the Covid season as follows:
Vegetables should not be kept together with raw meat and seafood as they can cross-contaminate bacteria.
Wash your hands and utensils related to vegetable preparation such as bowls, baskets, cutting boards before and after preparation. Don’t forget to wipe the kitchen counter where the cutting board or bowl is placed! Because vegetables always contain bacteria such as Salmonella, E.coli, and Listeria that cause diarrhea and even food poisoning.
Leafy vegetables (lettuce, sweet cabbage): they have the highest risk of carrying disease-causing bacteria because they grow close to the ground, with water and fertilizer directly sprayed on the leaves. Therefore, don’t hesitate to keep the yellowed, wilted leaves. Pick each leaf out of the stem, soak it in a bowl of water and wash it directly under the tap. Wash thoroughly from the stem to the leaves until clean.
Fruit vegetables (cucumbers, bitter melon, winter melon): they carry fewer diseases because the fruits grow on trellises. You should wash them thoroughly under the tap, wrap them tightly in plastic bags, put them in the refrigerator and use them within 2 days.
This method helps to decompose residual pesticides (if any) and keep the fruit vegetables fresh for a longer time. Before cooking, you can soak them in salt water and rinse them under the tap again.
Root vegetables (potatoes, beets): you don’t need to soak them in salt water or use purple medicine. Bacteria mainly adhere to the skin, so you can peel off the skin. Rinse before and after peeling.
Flower vegetables (pumpkin flowers, amaranth, sesbania grandiflora): the flowers grow high and are resistant to pesticides, so you only need to wash them directly under the tap.
Cook sour soup with snakehead fish – a delicious dish in the water season of the Western region
For fruits or vegetables that need to keep the skin, you should wash them under the tap and gently rub for about 1 minute to remove dirt.
Note:
After cleaning vegetables, you should shake them lightly and drain the water to remove any remaining bacteria.
Sliced or peeled vegetables should only be left out for 2 hours. If not cooked immediately, you should store them in the refrigerator.
If you are concerned about residual pesticides in vegetables, you can apply the following methods:
– Soak the vegetables in clean water for about 5-10 minutes and then rinse them under the tap or soak them in salt water.
– 5% salt water is the best for washing vegetables. Equivalent to 50gr of salt in 1 liter of water.
Heating is an effective method for decomposing pesticides. When blanching some heat-tolerant vegetables such as cabbage, carrots, or celery… you should blanch them for about 2 minutes to reduce 30% of the residue.
Exposing them to sunlight for 5 minutes can reduce 60% of the amount of pesticides and residual chlorine.
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