One small benefit of the Coronavirus pandemic is how everyone is cleaning everything — not just their hands, but the carts in the stores, the doors, their cars and phones, the rides in the amusement parks — everything!
Hopefully that will continue even after the pandemic has gotten better. At the onset of the pandemic, many people started wondering, “Is the food that I buy from the grocery store safe? Will I unknowingly bring the virus into my house just by grocery shopping?”
Of course, no one definitively knows anything — as we can see from all the varied opinions on websites and news briefings, but according to the John Hopkins Medicine website, it says,
The coronavirus is a respiratory virus, not a food-borne pathogen and at the time of this article, there is no known evidence that COVID-19 is transmitted through food or our food supply.
Melanie Newkirk, M.S., R.D.N., C.S.P., L.D.N., John Hopkins Medicine
But we all know that Coronavirus is not the only thing that causes illness, right? We can get sick because of pesticides on our foods or other germs. This is what the CDC says about our fresh veggies and fruit:
But sometimes raw fruits and vegetables contain harmful germs that can make you and your family sick, such as Salmonella, E. coli, and Listeria. CDC estimates that germs on fresh produce cause a large percentage of U.S. foodborne illnesses.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
If you clicked on those links above, you would find a lot more information about those food-borne illnesses including some of the following:
- “CDC estimates Salmonella bacteria cause about 1.35 million infections, 26,500 hospitalizations, and 420 deaths in the United States every year.”
- “An estimated 73,480 illnesses due to E. coli O157 infection occur each year in the United States, leading to an estimated 2,168 hospitalizations and 61 deaths annually (5), and it is an important cause of acute renal failure in children (6,7).”
- “Listeriosis is a serious infection usually caused by eating food contaminated with the bacterium Listeria monocytogenes. An estimated 1,600 people get listeriosis each year, and about 260 die. The infection is most likely to sicken pregnant women and their newborns, adults aged 65 or older, and people with weakened immune systems.”
So even if we don’t need to “worry” about getting COVID from our vegetables and fruits, we still need to properly wash our fruits and veggies to make sure we don’t get other illnesses.
The CDC has a nice infographic that has all the information you need on caring for for fruits and vegetables. You can print it off and attach it to your refrigerator or someplace in your kitchen to remind your husband or your kids or whoever needs reminding about safe practices for caring for fruits and vegetables.
I am part of a 2020 Brand Ambassador Program for a couple of Arm & Hammer products as well as an OxiClean product, all of which are distributed by CR Brands. I received free product as well as compensation for writing this post, but all opinions are strictly my own. This is my honest review of their product.
Sometimes just a little bottle of Fruit & Vegetable Wash on your counter might help you to remember to wash your fruits and veggies — and make it fun for your kids to get involved in the process. It’s simple!
Nothing can promise to keep you from diseases. Definitely this bottle can’t. But it can remind you to wash your fruit and veggies, and washing your fruits and veggies has been proven to prevent many illnesses most of the time.
The back of this bottle does say the following:
- Eliminates over 90% of pesticide residue (If you want to read a helpful article on pesticides, you can read this one by Healthline.)
- Cleans 4x better than water alone
- Removes wax and soil
- Free from harsh chemicals
- Leaves no taste or odor
- Gluten-free and vegan
Even with this wash, it does recommend that you let it stand for 15 minutes before rinsing for thorough removal of surface pesticides. You can go to their website for more information about the product or for some picture that shows the difference it can make.
Here are some pictures of what my fruit looked like when I used the Arm & Hammer Fruit & Vegetable Wash.
Go ahead and try it! It’s easy enough your kids can clean their own fruit and veggies with it, and it’s safe for them to use!!
