The Right Way to Clean Fresh Produce During This Pandemic

Amidst this pandemic, ensuring your fruits and vegetables are clean and safe to consume is more important now than ever before. While there is no evidence that food is a likely source or route of transmission of the virus – you must still follow the basic hygiene guidelines, in order to stay safe and healthy.
Below are some produce-cleaning tips:

• Wash Your Hands First

Before washing the groceries, do wash your hands with soap and water for 20 seconds. Also, keep a practice to wash your hands before cooking and before eating.

• Rinse and Clean
Washing produce does not need to require any specific detergent or fancy vegetable wash. Simply use running water to wash the produce. Likewise, you can sanitize or disinfect the food package by wiping them with an alcohol-based solution or just clean water.

If you are not satisfied with simple wash then squeeze one large lemon in 3-5 liters of water. Soak tender vegetables/ fruits in it for about 5 minutes.
Rinse with plain water.

Note: Avoid bringing the purchase directly on the kitchen top. Instead, leave them near the door entrance and wash every item one-by-one.

• Remove Bruised or Damaged Portions of Your Produce
Make sure you pick vegetables/fruits that aren’t damaged or bruised. If damage or bruising occurs before cooking or eating, cut away the damaged areas before using it.

• Keep Perishable Items Refrigerated
Meat, poultry, fish, eggs, and dairy products (milk, cheese, yogurt, etc) are perishable foods – they spoil easily. Such food items (raw or cooked) should be stored in the refrigerator without fail.

Whether the world is suffering from a pandemic or not, you have to wash your produce thoroughly. Fruits and vegetables go through several steps (harvesting, packaging, shipping, etc) before they get to your kitchen, hence it’s imperative to clean them before consuming After all, you don’t know from where that veggie in your plate has been.

Eating healthy and maintaining a strong immune system has become the need of the hour. So if you are looking for a nutritionist or a dietician who can help you with a healthy diet meal plan – get in touch with Kanupriya Khanna. One of the best dieticians in Delhi – Kanupriya can offer you good nutritional wisdom.
Kanupriya often posts various nutritional information and food recipes for kids. You can visit her website https://kanupriyakhanna.in and get some nutritional guidance at the comfort of your home.