For consumers worried about E. coli on their cantaloupe or pesticides on their peaches, there's a new form of alleged assistance on grocery store shelves: bottled washes that promise to remove pesticide residues, wax, dirt and bacteria from fruit and vegetables.
Given the recent string of nationwide outbreaks linked to produce -- salmonella on peanuts earlier this year, salmonella on jalapeno peppers last year, and E. coli O157:H7 on spinach in 2006 -- the antibacterial claims may be particularly alluring: A growing number of washes bearing such claims have arrived on the market in recent years.
But are these products necessary, and do they work?
Veggie Wash, Fit Fruit and Vegetable Wash, Bi-O-Kleen Produce Wash, Earth Friendly Products Fruit & Vegetable Wash and Eat Cleaner All Natural Food Wash and Wipes are some of the washes on store shelves. The precise contents vary, but produce washes typically contain some sort of surfactant, a cleansing agent that loosens dirt and breaks down oil, as well as ingredients intended to help kill germs, such as citrus oils, citrus acids or salts.
Unlike dish soap or other soaps, produce washes contain food-grade ingredients, so that they're safe to consume in residual amounts.
But though they are safe themselves, there's little evidence yet that they make produce any safer.
One wash -- Fit -- cites data on its website showing it is as good as chlorine solution at eliminating E. coli, salmonella and listeria pathogens from produce such as tomatoes, radishes, alfalfa sprouts and lettuce.
Another, Eat Cleaner, commissioned independent labs to test its product and found that it removed 99.9% of the E.coli and salmonella bacteria on produce.
But so far, the studies on washes have all been conducted or commissioned by the companies that make the products, says Sandra McCurdy, extension food safety specialist in the School of Family and Consumer Sciences at the University of Idaho in Moscow, Idaho. And their scientific methodology isn't entirely clear, she says.
McCurdy adds that most produce is pathogen-free because it's been washed during processing and because handlers take steps to avoid contaminating the fruits and vegetables they stock in the produce aisle. But if it is not, a thorough rinse under water is usually all that's needed to remove most pathogens.
Bacteria in plants
