this post was submitted on 31 Jul 2023
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If you ever bring fresh fruit home and notice a few fruit flies in your house, guess where those came from...
Also, having grown up on an apple farm, I can tell you for sure, washing fruit as soon as you bring it home strips off the fine coating of natural wax and makes the fruit spoil more quickly. Its fine to wash just before you eat it, but washing it out of pure OCD is a good way to spoil fresh fruit.
Some things benefit from a quick wash and others suffer depending on whether they have a protective covering that gets washed away.
Blackberries and apples go bad faster after washing because it removes the protective barrier.
Lettuce, celery, and strawberries last a lot longer if you wash them immediately because they don't lose a barrier that causes them to go bad faster.
I know you said fruits, but fruits like strawberries don't fit the pattern.
I'm confused on the lettuce etc... They DON'T lose a barrier when you wash them? This implies that the water is acting as the barrier?
I don't think lettuce has a barrier to lose. I don't rinse cucumbers, squash, or melons and their skin is waxy like an apple.
Cutting out the stem/separating all the leaves and rinsing and soaking for 5 or 10 minutes extends the lettuce life in the fridge by a week or more than just leaving it in the bag it came in.
Same with strawberries, rinsing them when you get home (not soaking like lettuce) extends their fridge life.
When I get my fruit from our CSA home, I only rinse food that's visibly dirty, usually melons. Because they'd make a mess everywhere. Everything gets stored and washed at dinner time.