What do you wash, besides fruit and veg?

[Fat Guy]

I just met someone who washes cans. You know, like if she's going to open a can of beans, she washes the can first. The theory being, when you puncture the can with a can opener, if there's bad stuff on the outside of the can, some of it can get in.

I also know a lot of people who wash chicken and other meat, though I'm not sure I understand why.

Then there are those triple-washed salads. Some people wash them, some don't.

What about you? Spill.

[nibor]

I wash meat to get rid of little bone chips and blood clots. Yum.

[DesertTinker]

I wipe can tops with a damp paper towel. Wipe the top of "Sparkletts" water bottle with alcohol before putting it on the dispenser, this one comes from a place I worked (not a food related business) where the extra bottles were stored in the restroom.

Also the above mentioned salads, I think they benefit from a quick rinse, seems to refresh them.

Edited June 30, 2007 by Quiltguy (log)

[Richard Kilgore]

My hands. I wash my hands. Does that count?

Wipe off can lids before opening with the seriously non-hygenic can opener, which makes great sense.

Wash chicken and some meats and pat dry with a paper towel or clean dish towel.

What's a triple-washed salad?

Oh. Yes. I wash my dishes. Used to just throw them away, but that just created more trash to take out.

[Pat Churchill]

I usually give the sink and adjoining area a wipe down before I start preparing food. And my own hands, of course. I didn't used to wash all vegetables apart from those with obvious dirt like leek tops, spinach etc but these days I am more careful.

I often wash the top of the tomato sauce (ketchup) bottle which seems to collect a trim of dried sauce.

I scrub my wooden chopping boards and put the plastic ones in the dishwasher. And I put all the dishcloths, pot scrubbers and brushes in a solution of bleach every couple of days.

Fortunately I've never managed to poison anyone yet.

[Pierogi]

Hmmmmm. I *think* about washing poultry before I cook it. Usually, however, when I think about it, it's after its already BEING cooked.

Does that count?

Other than that, my hands, fairly compulsively, and my boards. I at least wipe them down in between ingredients. Use a dedicated one for meat/poultry.

And my knives. If they've touched raw meat/poultry they get a scrub, if they're just been used for veg/herbs then they just get rinsed & wiped.

I honestly never think about rinsing beef/pork/lamb. And mostly I don't even rinse the poultry, only if the recipe reminds me to.

As far as cans go, I have one of those can openers that don't pierce the top, it breaks the seal and lifts the entire lid off. But even when I didn't I just opened and cruised on by.

Don't wash the triple-washed salads either. Honestly, if the bugs are there after three commercial washings (with a sanitizer solution), my peasly little tap water rinse ain't gonna help.

[SuzySushi]

I'm another one who wipes down the tops & rims of cans before opening them (with my unhygienic can opener -- but at least I know those germs are mine!).

A former boyfriend of my sister's compulsively washed the outsides of all food cans and bottles before storing them in his refrigerator or pantry, which is one of the reasons he's "former."

[Peter Green]

I checked with the reference source who must be obeyed.

Beyond all else, it's just good hygiene. "And you want good hygiene because it prevents you from getting sick".

For poultry, your concern is salmonella, which, as she says "won't kill you, but you'll wish it did". A quick rinse can remove a good bit of this, and cooking at temperature will kill the bacteria and denature the toxins. Consider it extra insurance.

And don't forget those egg shells.

Yoonhi points out that most commercial poultry is likely to have some salmonella present. The baths used on the lines create soups of the bacteria after the first bird through, so you're going to be sharing from then on in.

For meats, there's just the general concern that what's on the butchers' knives, blocks, and whatever can easily enough be spread about.

For vegetables - especially in the third world - bleach is a relatively easy way to avoid intestinal freeloaders. If you've had a collection of Vietnamese tapeworms living in your stomach, you may change your mind about "organically raised" produce.

And for cans....when the cans come off the line, they're sterile. After that, it's anyone's bet. While I argue that heating the food is going to negate any bad stuff, Yoonhi still isn't too keen on ingesting rat urine, cockroach droppings, air conditioner drippings, or whatever.

I've observed many an interesting top of a beer can across the world. I've taken to writing "clean me" in the junk on top of some.

Cheers,

peter

[Mallet]

I don't wash meat, but I often give it a little scrape with the back of a paring knife along the grain to remove some of the slurry from the bandsaw. Most places do this for you, but some don't.

[srhcb]

I don't go out of my way to wash anything unless it's noticeably dirty.

SB (and I'm maybe the healthiest person I know )

[Dianabanana]

Fish. Apparently the Japanese have a saying that goes something like "If it's fish, wash it twice, wash it thrice." Don't know if it actually makes a difference to the finished product, but they know a thing or two about fish, so I just do it.

Gloppy bottles. Saves washing out the fridge and cabinets later, plus crusty lids and sticky bottles are so demoralizing when trying to get dinner together after a long day.

Bagged salads, because it does seem to remove some of that stale smell. Although frankly I think I'm going to stop using those altogether. When have you ever stuck your nose in one of those bags and smelled the fresh, green, mineral smell that you should? It's always just kind of dead in there.

And I know the question is about what we wash "besides fruit and veg," but just want to throw in that I've been an obsessive fruit and veg washer ever since catching a stockboy at Safeway spraying RAID on the fruit in order to knock down the fruit flies!

[plk]

The last time I bought oxtails, they'd been packaged in plastic, which had made them slimy. Yuck. And I think there were little bone fragments stuck to the oxtails, too. They got a wash-off and patted dry before I used them. When I buy a whole chicken, I usually wash it off and then let it air-dry in the fridge.

As for fruits and veg, I feel I should always wash them to get rid of pesticides, but I don't always do it. I don't wash packaged salad mix that's already been washed. I don't wash the tops of cans, but I would probably wipe one off before using it if I noticed it was really dusty.

[jsmith]

I wipe off the opening section of a beer can with my grubby shirt. All sorts of crap gets stuck in the grooves, the flap is getting submerged in the beer, and the beer is pouring over the opening, so it seems pretty reasonable.

I never wash fish as my fishmonger told not me not to, and I never wash meat as my dishrack is beside the sink and I worry about splashing.

[Dianabanana]

I never wash fish as my fishmonger told not me not to, and I never wash meat as my dishrack is beside the sink and I worry about splashing.

←

Did he say why? It doesn't seem like it's a sanitation thing--I mean, any bacteria on the outside are going to get cooked anyway--but it does get slimy on the outside, and it seems like all that oxidized slime might not contribute to delicious fresh fish flavor. At least that's what I've always assumed.

[rooftop1000]

I wipe can tops on my pants usually....soda cans get checked for goop in the rim....I run my can opener through the dishwasher every couple of weeks.

I never wash meat, just seems like it would spread the "happiness" around the kitchen and I usually dont wash fruit from this deep hatred of wet fruit from childhood.

and whats truly evil is I dont wash out the recyclables

tracey