5 essential precautions to take before washing your vegetables
You may have checked your vegetables for freshness when buying them from the market and picked out the perfect ingredients for your next meal, but before you begin to wash and store them, have you taken all the necessary precautions? Making the vegetables you buy safe to eat involves not just the process of washing them but also many steps of preparation beforehand. Here’s what you should be doing before you wash your vegetables:
– As soon as you’ve brought them home, remove your vegetables from the carry bag or containers that they came in and dispose of them or clean them separately. This is the first line of defense as the containers are the most exposed to the elements and are at a higher risk of containing invisible germs.
– Wash your hands for at least 20 seconds with soap and water before handling vegetables. After the containers, it is your hands that can be potential carriers of germs and infection. For extra protection, you can also use a disinfectant hand wash. If using a hand sanitizer, rinse your hands with water and remove all traces of the sanitizer before you touch your vegetables.
– Sanitize the kitchen counter and sink where you will be cleaning your vegetables and make sure it is completely dry before placing vegetables on it. Preferably, keep a designated area for cleaning vegetables and clean it both before and after washing your vegetables.
– Remove the outer leaves of cabbage and other leafy vegetables. Check for wilted leaves and discard them. This will keep future spoilage in check.
– Make sure that the vegetable wash you are about to use does not contain any soap, perfume or artificial colour as they can change the taste and texture of your fresh vegetables. You can use the vegetable wash concentrate HûMaree™ VegeSûre™ that contains Natural Alpha Hydroxy and non-toxic naturally derived Glucosides which effectively washes away pesticides, insecticides and kills 99.9% germs from your vegetables while preserving the taste, texture and freshness of the vegetables. After you’ve washed the vegetables with water, you only need to add 15 ml of HûMaree™ VegeSûre™ veg wash concentrate to approximately 2.5 litres of water in a bowl and soak the veggies in the solution for 2 minutes before rinsing it under plain running water. Since one 500 ml bottle of HûMaree™ VegeSûre™ can make up to 83 litres of vegetable wash solution, you don’t have to worry about it having a big impact on your monthly grocery budget.
When it comes to the health of your family, there should be no compromise. Exercise the utmost caution when handling vegetables and other food as they have passed through many hands before you’ve picked them up. The final step of washing your vegetables with HûMaree™ VegeSûre™ veg wash solution removes traces of pesticides, insecticides and germs, leaving you with only nutrition and the goodness of fresh produce.