You will never look at an unwashed apple or vegetables the same after seeing results of recent testing done by Quadrants Scientific Inc. The San Diego-based analytical laboratory found significant levels of bacteria on fruit and vegetables purchased at local grocery stores in research it did for NBCSanDiego TV station. "You just assume food from the grocery store is free from bacterial contamination but it may not be," said Mark Shannon, Quadrants president and chief executive.
Company technicians used strict scientific procedures to test the fruit's surfaces and found a quarter million microorganisms on the unwashed apples, including bacillus, leifsonia and micrococcus bacteria. "It was the same kind of thing we found on a carrot," said Shannon. Such numbers might pose a health risk to the elderly, immuno-compromised and young children. But after washing the fruit and vegetables for 15 seconds with cold water (the minimum recommended by the USDA) the results were dramatically different.
Only 5,000 microorganisms were found on the washed apples, a 98 percent reduction after a simple cleaning. Shannon said special soaps used to clean produce are overkill because a simple rinse in water is effective. Shannon also recommends washing produce with a peel as well (e.g. avocado) because a knife can transfer contamination from the skin to the meat during the preparation process.
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