5 things to keep in mind while cleaning veggies and fruits

The pandemic has made people more conscious of hygiene and cleanliness than ever before.

We have changed our lifestyles and added hygiene-conscious practices to keep us safe.

From sanitising courier boxes on arrival to showering immediately after coming back home, these are just some instances of how vigilant we have become.

This vigilance has also extended to the kitchen. Simply washing fruits and vegetables doesn’t cut it anymore.

We have to be conscious about how to clean our produce! That is why; we need to keep in mind certain things while cleaning our fruits and vegetables.

Below are 5 things to keep in mind while cleaning veggies and fruits:

1. Make sure the kitchen sink and utensil are clean
When we are washing and storing our vegetables and fruits, we use a range of kitchen essentials throughout the process. The utensils, kitchen platform, knife, kitchen sink, and more – all of it should be cleaned, so that the produce doesn’t get dirty by these utensils during the process of cleaning.

2. Wash each kind of produce separately
When we buy our groceries, we don’t buy only one type of fruit or vegetable, we buy a range of produce that are generally meant to last for at least a week. While the easy thing to do is wash all the vegetables and fruits at once, we tend to miss out on cleaning the produce properly.

Leafy veggies are meant to be washed in a different method from fruits and vice versa, therefore we need to wash each kind of vegetable and produce separately. Fruits should be scrubbed under running water. For leafy vegetables, soak veggies in still water; the dirt shall settle down. Another technique you can use for leafy veggies is – just place them in a colander or sieve and put them under running water.

3. Don’t forget to dry produce before storing
You’ll notice that the produce you bought a few days ago has started to wilt already. At times, the reason behind this is that one doesn’t completely dry the fruits and vegetables before storing them. Fungus and bacteria need moisture to develop and grow. If we don’t dry the produce, the bacteria that wasn’t washed off during cleaning ends up growing.

4. Remove the outermost layer of leafy vegetables
Leafy vegetables like lettuce and cabbage don’t have skin or a peel to protect them from the surrounding atmosphere. While we can peel the skin on potatoes and onions, we can’t do the same for leafy vegetables. Washing them doesn’t always get the job done, therefore it is better to remove the outermost leaf of the veggies while washing.

5. Wash hands before cleaning produce
This last suggestion might seem obvious, but at times our lazy self doesn’t feel like washing hands. We think that our hands shall get washed while washing the produce, not thinking that touching the produce with unclean hands can have consequences. Wash your hands for 20 seconds with warm water with soap.

Add these tiny practices to your kitchen life to keep your produce fresh and clean. Do tell us in the comments section how you liked them.