The season’s fresh fruits and vegetables beckon from your
grocery shelves, and some
new rinses promise to make your produce cleaner and safer. But
none may be better
than a free liquid you already have.

“I’m not familiar with every new product. But the ones I’ve seen
are mostly
surfactants, or wetting agents,” said Elizabeth Andress, a food
safety specialist with the
University of Georgia Extension Service.

“These rinses help lift and carry dirt away,” she said. “But I
haven’t seen enough
evidence to support investing in them. They won’t hurt anyone if
used as directed and
no one is allergic to the ingredients. But I can’t say that they
clean produce
significantly better than rubbing or scrubbing in clean,
drinkable water.”

Andress said the information she has studied on the new products
all leads to the same
point.

“The most important factor for cleaning produce is agitation in
clean, clear water,” she
said. “In the home, rubbing the skins or peels in clean water is
just as successful as
using special rinsing solutions. High-quality, fresh produce
handled correctly is a
lower-risk food for foodborne illness.”

Using a scrub brush can help, she said, when the peelings will
hold up, as with
potatoes or citrus fruit.

Anytime you rinse produce, pay special attention to areas where
dirt is likely to collect
or cling. “Rub or scrub carefully,” she said, “around such
places as blossom ends, stem
ends, crevices, cracks and eyes of potatoes.”

Some produce rinses may contain ingredients such as acetic acid
or hydrogen peroxide.
These are designed to kill microorganisms that cause foodborne
illness, Andress said.

But even these may be no better than water, she said. Normally,
they just aren’t
needed.

“Pathogenic bacteria are most often outnumbered on fresh fruits
and vegetables by
other microorganisms,” she said. “The latter, if allowed to
reach very high numbers,
cause quality loss such as mushiness, off flavors, color
changes, slime or mold.”

In the normal food-supply process, she said, the things that
make you refuse to eat
produce grow much faster than those that would make you sick.

There can be exceptions, she said, when an unexpected pathogen
isn’t controlled by
normal washing and cold storage or can cause illness with a
fairly low dose. “This is
rare but does happen,” she said, “such as some Salmonella
contamination we’ve had on
produce in the past.”

Normally, Andress said, fresh fruit and vegetables are safe in
your grocery store and
farmers’ market. “Produce today is washed pretty well before it
reaches the shelves,”
she said.

Produce from a neighbor, she said, may not have been washed and
stored as safely. So
clean it more carefully yourself.

Whether you use plain water or invest in a commercial rinse,
Andress said, don’t forget
the keys.

“Don’t sell yourself the assumption that because you use this
rinse, the food is sanitized
or safer,” she said. “Choosing fresh, high-quality produce and
thorough agitation or
rubbing in clean water are your best safeguards. With produce,
they’re your keys to
coming clean.”