Advice From a Microbiologist Who Studies Bacteria on Plants.
The other day, out of sheer paranoia, I washed all my produce in soapy water. I am a bit of a germ-o-phobe to begin with, so I tend to feel like something isn't clean unless there are a lot of suds. I also know that you're not supposed to wash produce in dish soap because of ingesting residue, but with the virus going around, my paranoia was strong! Then, a few days later, out of the blue, one of my sisters sent an article from the LA Times advising us not to do that (for the very reason that we could be ingesting soap, which is toxic for us), asking for our opinion in the family group chat.
Of course, the best advice is to grow your own produce to save money and avoid foreign contamination, but not all of us have the right space or time to do that.
My oldest sister spoke up. She is working on her PhD in microbiology, doing studies on the microbiome of plants. In her studies, she has to disinfect plants (lettuce, to be specific) to remove rogue bacteria and microbes that collect on the plant from the air which could throw off her studies. It turns out that the surfactant (SDS or SLS) in regular dish soap has the quality of dissolving the outer lipid membranes of bacteria and viruses (hence washing your hands is very effective!). So this is what they use to disinfect their plants. But, in the process of disinfecting, they have to take special care not to also destroy the cell walls of the plant itself. They do this by washing the plants in a very diluted solution of soap in water. Simple!
If we do that with our produce, there will still be a residue that is left behind for us to ingest, so the answer is to make sure it is minimal (we already ingest soap residue from our own dishes on a regular basis and we don't want to double that!). So, a 1% solution of soap in water actually does make a difference! Her advice was to put a drop of soap in six liters of water and lots of manual rinsing and rubbing (this was a rough guess, but close to something she might do in the lab). Although, be gentle with your greens, as lots of rubbing will break them down and make them go bad quick.
Real talk, I had already rubbed my oranges with LOTS of soap and they have all gone bad super quick (could be that they were already old, or that I completely destroyed the outer cell biome which protects them from getting moldy too fast...)! So, now I am sharing with you all, so you can stop being paranoid like me and know that a little actually does go a long way.
Now, if you're concerned about washing off pesticides, that's a different story. Saltwater is actually the most effective way to do that. If you want to know more about that, you should watch this YouTube video, "How to Make Your Own Fruit and Vegetable Wash." This is an informative video about washing pesticides from your veggies, which also discusses the science behind it! If you're like me, and concerned this would be too much washing for your produce (soap and salt), I've decided to prioritize disinfecting until the pandemic sort of blows over.
Lastly, do not use bleach. This is because the residue it leaves on produce could potentially affect your gut health in the long run.
Hope this has helped!
Photo by Talal Ahmad on Unsplash
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