Do you eat unwashed berries? 🍓🫐🍓

[Anonymous]

Do you wash your berries before you eat them?

A. Yes, I take the berries out of the container and rinse them under running water before transferring to a new container

B. Yes, in fact I wash berries in some kind of food-safe cleaning solution before eating (please share your cleaning formula)

C. No, I eat berries straight out of the container because I have a superior immune system

D. It depends, I wash some berries and others I don't (please specify which ones and why)


I do A. But, eating berries right out of the container seems quite popular (on social media, watching coworkers eat lunches, my fellow travelers on airplanes, etc). Maybe I'm missing something--does the water even do anything?

[Anonymous]

Microbiologist here. I do A. Food washing solutions are just a commercial gimmick, but yes, you do need to rinse your produce, and pass your (clean) fingers over them to mechanically get rid of debris and some microbes. The more fragile the produce (raspberries, mushrooms), the lighter your touch needs to be.

[Anonymous]

I rinse them, but sometimes I skip it. Sorry.

I always rinse them if serving them to others.

Also if I’m serving grapes to anyone, I rinse them in baking soda water. Just because it makes them look pretty.

[Anonymous]

A usually. C if I'm lazy.

[Anonymous]

I douse in a water - vinegar solution.

The amount of dirt that comes off each time is disgusting.

[Anonymous]

A. Of course. They are so dirty and may also have pesticides.

[Anonymous]

I rinse the berries, but they come in a plastic container with holes in the bottom that functions like a colander, so you can just wash them in the container and then eat out of it. Lots of people do it this way. I'm less concerned about microbes than pesticides, but at the end of the day not going to spend much time thinking about either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Microbiologist here. I do A. Food washing solutions are just a commercial gimmick, but yes, you do need to rinse your produce, and pass your (clean) fingers over them to mechanically get rid of debris and some microbes. The more fragile the produce (raspberries, mushrooms), the lighter your touch needs to be.

Are you joking about mushrooms? Mushrooms are quite literally covered in dirt. It's not going to come off with a light touch of the fingers.

[Anonymous]

C. I just feel like water doesn’t clean them so what’s the point

[Anonymous]

I rinse always.

[Anonymous]

A. Usually. But I've certainly rinsed right in the container and thrown it in my lunch box, or picked up a container of berries, rinsed them in the bathroom at the grocery store or under a water fountain, and eaten them.

If for some reason I want berries and there's no running water, I've eaten them without washing.

When my child was severely immunocompromised, we washed in diluted vinegar or used frozen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A. Of course. They are so dirty and may also have pesticides.

You aren’t really washing the pesticides off. Debis yea, which is why I do it.

[Anonymous]

Only if I’m taste testing expensive berries at the store. Otherwise no.

[Anonymous]

My mom soaks in baking powder + water for 15 mins and then rinses. I just wash under water but I admit her grapes are impressively shiny afterwards.

[Anonymous]

Always water and vinegar wash, rinse or soak