Washing salad before eating

[dave50]

Why do people wash salad stuffs before eating? ie running water over it. What good does that do? I never bother, I just eat it as it is, never made me ill.

[samak]

Dave,
Imagine you're eating a lettuce imported from Egypt. Human faeces are used to fertilise the crops. Need I say more ?

[ummmm]

In case an animal piddled on it. Insects crawling all over it. Reasons like that...

[237SJ]

samak - human faeces are usedd to fertilise some of the crops in this country.

[DEN53]

I wash all salad, tomatoes in hot water then cold and peel cucumbers, wash lettace in cold water, though apart from getting crawlies off it, it wouldn't kill any germs.

[milly143]

I agree with Dave a little. If a lettuce is covered in faeces, is a bit of cold water going to get rid of that? I suspect you're probably still eating it. I'm not though, I'm a salad dodger.

[dave50]

Well running water over it won't kill any germs.

[Old_Geezer]

No. But there again I have the good taste not to eat salad.
Most foodstuffs are unpalatable until properly cooked.

[237SJ]

I buy bagged, washed salad because I can`t be bothered to wash it myself but if I did, I wouldn`t expect it to kill germs. I would just want to wash off pesticide residue, dust and slugs. I don`t think you can expect more than that from washing IMO

[what..the?]

I have OCD sometimes about things being clean but I don't bother with salad if it looks clean I just leave it, sometimes with my iceburg lettuce I might take the outer leaves off but only if they look bad. Problem I have is when you wash a lettuce you can't get the water off properly after, and there's no way I am buying a salad spinner like my mum used to have growing up. What am I going to dry it on a tea towel or kitchen roll, I'm too busy for that.

[merciasounds]

(Heave)

[merciasounds]

Dilligaf?

[carmalee]

everyone has their own standards - I've lived (and survived) many years in Africa -I take responsibility for the food I eat and act accordingly. You want to eat **** - be my guest

[mccfluff]

wibblewaf

[Old_Geezer]

Well that is very unusual for me. Was in Asda and decided to have a healthy lunch, so bought (among other things) a pot of lentil salad !

No I didn't wash it. It actually seemed edible. But also seems to have unfortunate side effects.

[carmalee]

open the windows OG