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Shopping for produce has become one of the many coronavirus-related challenges of 2020. In addition to the lack of fresh options most of us face while trying to avoid the grocery store for as long as possible, there is also the issue of how to properly clean fruits and vegetables.
Should you simply wash them with hot water before eating, like many sites are reporting, or do you need to take additional precautions, such as wiping them down with a substance that kills germs? Should you sanitize them during the shopping trip (ie. before they go in your cart), so as to avoid spreading the virus to your hands, cart, personal items?
It’s tricky–but we’re here to help.
Leading health experts agree that touching fruits and vegetables in the grocery store comes with COVID-19 risks. Here are the safest handling tips they recommend:
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To start, never touch fruits and vegetables with your bare hands, Dr. Stacy Mobley, N.M.D., M.P.H., a licensed Naturopathic Doctor and Certified Ayurvedic Wellness Counselor, says. Especially the items that you are not purchasing!
Why? "COVID-19 is transmitted through droplets," she explains. "If someone coughs or sneezes, these droplets will fall near where they coughed. This includes a person coughing into their hands (as opposed to their elbows). If they cough or sneeze around the fruits and vegetables, the droplets can fall on them."
If you don't have gloves, you can use the grocery store-provided plastic veggie bags to pick up produce to look at or place in your cart.
Secondly, you should wash the fruits and vegetables that you do buy.
As Dr. Jeanne Breen, Infectious Disease Physician and Researcher and Melissa Lunch, Co-Founder of Force of Nature, assert--this is always true, even in non-outbreak times.
"Fruits and veggies may look fresh and clean, but the truth is that even organic ones come home with contaminants like soil and bacteria which can lead to food poisoning," Dr. Breen advises.
So--how should you wash them during the coronavirus outbreak with the threat of transmission lingering? "Washing your hands properly after returning from the store, and wash the produce with running water (no other product truly needed)," Dr. Mobley advises. "Then wash your hands before cooking."
Dr. Breen suggests taking the process a step further by spraying your produce with an EPA-approved cleaning solution like Force of Nature to kill any bacteria.
Force of Nature Starter Kit ($89.99)
