4 ways to sanitise your groceries at home

Sanitising groceries at home is one of the ways to maintain good health.  Groceries nowadays come laced with very harmful chemicals and pesticides. When consumed, they may lead to adverse health complications including cancer. Vegetables and fruits may also be contaminated with bacteria, viruses and parasites. Eating such contaminated groceries could lead to diseases such as typhoid, cholera, amoebiasis, diarrhea among others. In addition, it is important to maintain a high level of personal and food hygiene during the global coronavirus pandemic in order to stay safe.

Below are ways to sanitise your groceries and make them safe for eating:

Running tap water

Most groceries come with soil that increases your chances of exposure to E.Coli. Cutting fruits or vegetables that are contaminated with soil such as watermelons, carrots, and potatoes can pass on the germs to your gut. Wash your fruits and vegetables under running tap water as you scrub them with a vegetable brush.  Freshwater, however, does not disinfect the produce but removes dirt in preparation for disinfection.

Chlorine solution

Sodium hypochlorite is also a good sanitiser. It is recommended for cleaning fruits and vegetables that will be eaten raw.  Soak your produce in 100 ppm sodium hypochlorite for 5 minutes then rinse off in clean water.

Water and vinegar solution

Vinegar is known to remove pesticides from farm produce. In addition, the acidity in white vinegar helps kill bacteria, making vinegar water a good groceries sanitiser.

When washing broccoli, berries, cauliflower and other difficult to clean vegetables and fruits, it is good to soak them first and then rinse off. A mixture of 1 part vinegar and 3 parts water is recommended. However, adding a few drops of lemon juice makes the mixture more effective.

It is also said that washing berries with this mixture protects them from molding and hence increases their shelf life. When washing cabbage heads, it is advisable to remove the leaves and wash each separately.

However, cleaning soft vegetables and fruit such as grapes and tomatoes requires extra precaution to protect them from tearing. Put the vinegar water in a spray bottle and mist the groceries carefully until the skin is fully coated, then rub with your hands under running water to wash off the vinegar.

Vege wash

I bought this vegetable wash from Chandarana supermarket sometime back, and the last time I passed there they still had it in stock.

According to the package, it removes pesticides from groceries and has been tested and approved by USA Laboratory.

Made in Malaysia, the product also boasts of the ability to restore the natural color of your vegetables.

It goes for less than 400 shillings.

What else do you use to sanitise groceries at home? Please share in the comments box.