Home Gardening Food Safety: Washing the Fruits (and Vegetables) of Your Labor Properly
Hands rinsing off tomatoes.
view on EDIS
PDF-2013

How to Cite

Persaud, Eshani, Amy Simonne, and Karla P. Shelnutt. 2013. “Home Gardening Food Safety: Washing the Fruits (and Vegetables) of Your Labor Properly: FCS80032/FY1401, 11/2013”. EDIS 2013 (10). Gainesville, FL. https://doi.org/10.32473/edis-fy1401-2013.

Abstract

Having a home garden has become popular recently. It is a great way to enjoy fresh fruits and vegetables—foods that are an important part of a healthy diet. However, just because you have your own garden and control how it is treated does not make the fruits and vegetables you grow safer than those you buy in the store. To reduce the chance of getting sick from foodborne illnesses, you must wash the fruits and vegetables you grow before eating them raw or cooked. This publication helps you learn the proper way to clean your fruits and vegetables so you can enjoy them safely. This 4-page fact sheet was written by Eshani Persaud, Amy Simonne, and Karla P. Shelnutt, and published by the UF Department of Family Youth and Community Sciences, November 2013.
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/fy1401

https://doi.org/10.32473/edis-fy1401-2013
view on EDIS
PDF-2013

References

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (2011). Incidence of foodborne illness, 2010. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/Features/dsFoodborneIllness

Chang, J., & Fang, T. (2007). Survival of Escherichia coli O157:H7 and Salmonella enterica serovars Typhimurium in iceberg lettuce and the antimicrobial effect of rice vinegar against E. coli O157:H7. Food Microbiology, 24(7-8), 745-751.

Crowe, K., Bushway, A., & El-Begearmi, M. (2011). Food safety facts: Best ways to wash fruits and vegetables. University of Maine Extension. Retrieved from http://umaine.edu/publications/4336e/

Davis, J. G., & Kendall, P. A. (2005). Preventing E. coli from garden to plate. Colorado State University Extension. Retrieved from http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/foodnut/09369.html

Food and Drug Administration (FDA). (2013). Raw produce: Selecting and serving it safely. Retrieved from http://www.fda.gov/Food/ResourcesForYou/Consumers/ucm114299.htm

FDA. (2011). 7 Tips for cleaning fruits, vegetables. Retrieved from http://www.fda.gov/ForConsumers/ConsumerUpdates/ucm256215.htm

Kilonzo-Nthenge, A., Chen, F. C., & Godwin, S. L. (2006). Efficacy of home washing methods in controlling surface microbial contamination on fresh produce. Journal of Food Protection 69(2), 330-334.

Oregon State University Extension. (2011). Food safety starts in the garden. Retrieved from http://extension.oregonstate.edu/gardening/food-safety-starts-garden-0

Painter, J., Hoekstra, R., Ayers T., Tauxe, R., Braden, C., Angulo, F., et al. (2013). Attribution of foodborne illnesses, hospitalizations, and deaths to food commodities by using outbreak data, United States, 1998-2008. Emerg Infect Dis. http://dx.doi.org/10.3201/eid1903.111866

USDA. (2011). Washing food: Does it promote food safety? Retrieved from http://www.fsis.usda.gov/wps/portal/fsis/topics/food-safety-education/getanswers/food-safety-fact-sheets/safe-food-handling/washing-food-does-it-promote-food-safety/washing-food

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) license.