The Best Fruit and Veggie Wash of 2024

Fruit and Veggie Wash: A Buying Guide

Fruit and veggie washes are one of the easiest ways to clean your vegetables and fruits without using vegetable brushes or soaking them in water. They are also made out of safe ingredients, usually other food ingredients, making them safe to wash with. Here’s what you need to know when buying vegetable wash.

The Importance of Fruit and Veggie Washes

Vegetable wash is a substance used on vegetables and fruit to clean them. The substance gets rid of any dirt or particles attached to the surface of the fruit or vegetable, as well as most pesticide residue and wax.

The Different Types of Fruit and Veggie Washes

Liquid-based

Liquid-based vegetable washes come in bottles – usually, spray bottles. These washes are commonly applied directly to the surface of the fruit or vegetable to clean them immediately. They can also be used as an agent for soaking your fruits and vegetables, which achieves the same result. However, this may be inefficient and a waste of wash for some, which is why liquid-based washes are often applied directly rather than as an ingredient for soaking.

Powder-based

While liquid-based washes are great for a quick cleaning, powder-based washes are best for soaking. The powder is mixed with water, resulting in a mixture that works like a liquid-based wash. For this reason, powder-based washes are often used to soak large amounts of fruits and vegetables at a time. You may even fill an empty spray bottle with the mixture instead if you prefer direct application.

Tips for Using Fruit and Veggie Wash

Spray bottles are your friend

Vegetable washes are packed in spray bottles for a reason. You only need one or two sprays per fruit or vegetable for the wash to work its magic. Let the wash settle for a bit before rinsing with water to really let the wash kick in and dismantle the dirt and pesticides on the surface.

Don’t put too much powder

When using powder, it’s important that you don’t mix too much or too little. Too much powder can make the mixture too concentrated, and too little powder will result in less-than-ideal rinsing. Be sure to follow the instructions as provided by the product manufacturer to ensure that you get the expected results.

Check the video for some useful tips to clean your fruits and vegetables!

How to Use Fruit and Veggie Washes

Some people may be wondering as to how often one should use a vegetable wash. Ideally, you’ll want to use it every meal, but some would consider that to be a waste of both time and money. As such, here are a few guidelines to help you consider when you should use the vegetable wash, and when you shouldn’t. As safe handling of produce can reduce the risk of contamination, it is always recommended to clean vegetables before consumption.

Firstly, let’s talk about fruits and vegetables. In general, fruits are cleaner than vegetables. This can be due to a variety of reasons, but one of the biggest reasons is that fruits hang safely above trees or stalks, whereas vegetables are closer to the ground, making them more prone to accumulating dust and dirt. Of course, there are exceptions to this, but you get the picture.

And even among vegetables, some are “cleaner” than others. For example, corn is a common vegetable that’s subject to all sorts of pesticides and insecticides to keep it safe from critters. This makes them more likely to contain residue from pesticides when you buy one on the market.

Finally, there’s the actual marketplace to consider. Some markets follow strict sanitary procedures to ensure that all products sold inside keep up with their standards. This results in generally cleaner fruits and vegetables. Other marketplaces, however, aren’t so strict. You can expect some of these fruits and vegetables to be a little dirtier than the ones you find at, say, a supermarket.

With all that being said, how do you figure out what to wash and what not to wash? It’s simple – create a hierarchy or order of food to wash, from highest to lowest priority. The highest priority on the list is root crop vegetables that are sold in less sanitary markets. The moment those veggies come out of the vegetable bags, they should definitely be washed. You can then work your way down the list, with fruits being less of a necessity to wash, etc. Of course, if you spot a bit of dirt on your fruit or vegetable, no matter where it came from, giving it a thorough washing wouldn’t hurt.