How to Wash Produce during COVID-19 and Beyond

There has been controversy about whether you should wash your produce with soap and water during the COVID-19 pandemic - let’s dig into the recommendations to see the safest way to eat fruits and veggies. ***This situation is dynamic, follow the latest CDC recommendations*** Subscribe to Nourishable at youtube.com/c/Nourishable

The information in this video is not intended or implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. All content, including text, graphics, images and information, contained on or available through this video is for general information purposes only.

Script with in-text citations: bit.ly/3dPdAkP

References
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The COVID-19 pandemic has everyone rethinking about how they interact with well trafficked surfaces. There is some controversy over whether you should wash your fresh produce with soap and water. Here’s what we know for sure: eating fruits and vegetables is SUPER important for health. Right now, it is possible that fruits and vegetables purchased from grocery stores may be contaminated with coronavirus. You want to prevent transferring coronavirus from the produce or its packaging to your respiratory tract or to other surfaces in your house. We don’t know how long coronavirus can last on produce and there haven’t been studies investigating the best method to get coronavirus specifically off of produce. So what should you do? The greatest risk of getting coronavirus is still from human-to-human transmission. I’m taking social distancing very seriously and apart from walking my dog outside, the only time I’m leaving my house is to go grocery shopping every 2 weeks. While grocery shopping I’m using hand sanitizers, wipes to clean my cart, keeping 6 feet away from other people and just being as quick and efficient as possible. When I get home, I’m wiping down all hard surface packaging like plastic, metal and glass with household cleaners before storage. Last time I went shopping I did wash all my produce with soap and water - what can I say, I was scared! - but after digging into this data some more I’m going to just rinse all produce in cold running water and store in fresh containers at home. I’m vigilantly washing my hands with soap before food prep, during prep, and before eating. COVID or not, frequently washing your hands before and during food prep is an important habit to get into. So no, you shouldn’t wash your produce with soap. Eat your fruits and veggies, and wash your produce with water, your hands with soap and be physically distant but socially close. That’s what science tastes like.