I'm not buying fresh produce that isn't very well wrapped or bagged anymore

[Kaleva]

At least until things return to normal.

I'm not talking about items like cabbage that's wrapped in cellophane or carrots that are sealed in a bag but open items one sees like tomatoes, apples, oranges, grapes, potatoes, cucumbers and so on.

Most of us have seen people handle such fruit and vegetables and put them back.

I don't know of a good way of disinfecting produce so I'll err on the side of caution.

[rzemanfl]

1. As far as I know there are not produce robots yet.

I have seen information on how long the virus might live on surfaces, but not on food.

Back in the sixties people used to open jars and containers, sniff them then put them back. I saw it many times during the years (age 16-23) I worked in grocery stores while finishing my education. Packaging these days is more secure.

[Blueplanet]

2. I Usually rinse fruits and vegetables that are not packaged

This time, I rinsed my fruits and vegetables twice and let the produce soak for a while.

[dlk]

3. A vinegar wash/soak will disinfect fresh produce

Use 1 part white vinegar to 3 parts water & soak for 5-10 minutes. Then rinse well.

[Blueplanet]

6. good idea

Using a little vinegar is much safer. I've heard of people adding a drop of bleach to the water they soak their vegetables in.

[lame54]

4. I hear you but it's a shame...

The trend is to get away from packaging

This may reverse that

[in2herbs]

5. The problem with that theory is that bagged food, i.e., lettuces, etc., comes with its own bag of

diseases as there have been many recalls of bagged lettuce for e-coli and other diseases. I would think that oranges would be OK since they have a thick skin that is removed before eating. Maybe any food that you remove the skin before eating would be OK??

[dlk]

7. All fresh produce, bagged or not, should be routinely disinfected

Safety first...

[in2herbs]

11. Yes, I always wash my fruit and lettuce, however, it's my understanding that some of the diseases

like E-coli, etc., exist in the root/stem system and can't be washed out because the disease was in the water/soil in which the food was grown.

[Kaleva]

16. How do you do that?

If we are being advised to wash our hands vigorously with soap for at least 20 seconds and then rinse, how do you do that with produce? Rinsing alone won't do it.

[dlk]

28. Please see my previous post about a vinegar wash/soak

[Kaleva]

32. does that work on viruses?

[dlk]

39. Yes

[Kaleva]

42. This site says vinegar is not a registered disinfectant

"Disinfectants: A guide to killing germs the right way

Vinegar

Vinegar can be used as a safer bleach alternative for some applications, like cleaning. It is also biodegradable. However, vinegar is not a registered disinfectant and does not kill dangerous bacteria like staphylococcus."

https://www.mnn.com/health/healthy-spaces/stories/disinfectants-a-guide-to-killing-germs-the-right-way

[GoCubsGo]

46. This scientist says it is a disinfectant.

https://davidsuzuki.org/queen-of-green/does-vinegar-kill-germs/

I'll take David Suzuki's word for it over "Mother Nature Network" any day.

[Kaleva]

49. An that site says it only kills 80% of germs

So it's not a disinfectent.

[Blueplanet]

9. Especially lettuce

Items such as wrapped lettuce should always be rinsed before using.
Rinse off all produce before throwing it in the pot or serving cold.

[marybourg]

10. No. Remember the cantaloupe crisis? Listeria inside,

thick skin notwithstanding.

https://www.healthline.com/health/worst-foodborne-illness-outbreaks#eme-coliem

Scroll down

[Kaleva]

14. Produce you have to peel or skin maybe ok as you say

[cwydro]

8. Lol, there are germs all over the store.

Saw a grimy guy leaning against the cereal boxes on an aisle yesterday. Filthy hoodie and jeans, talking on his cell...kept reaching out and absently touching random items.

I remember a kid running around the meat area smacking each package with his hand, for the sound, I suppose.

Made me glad I wasn’t buying any meat. Ick.

[Kaleva]

18. You probably ought to stay out of every store then.

[cwydro]

23. No kidding.

It grosses me out.

It also amazes me that a mother would let her child touch all those meat packages.

[Kaleva]

27. What gets me is people digging in open bags of grapes

I rarely, ever buy grapes.

[cwydro]

30. Gah!

I know! I’ve seen that too!

[Hekate]

36. Should make you glad you're not his mom, trying to get him to wash his hands!

[Native]

12. I bought a head of plastic wrapped, organic broccoli from Walmart

for the first time and couldn't eat it. The plastic wrapping smelled like some horrid mix of petrol and some other gawdawful chemicals, and the broccoli smelled the same simply from coming in contact with it. And their organic spinach has a faint taste of fish to it - every box I've tried (probably fertilized with a fish emulsion). It's a shame because both items are significantly fresher than any other produce I can find at local stores.

[Voltaire2]

13. Good luck with that.

I’m sacrificing a small 🐐 goat on Saturday

[frazzled]

15. Advice on food from the Food Safety Institute of Ireland

Best I could find:

Can the virus be passed on through food?

Experience with SARS and MERS suggest that people are not infected with the virus through food. So, it is unlikely the virus is passed on through food and there is no evidence yet of this happening with COVID-19 (coronavirus) to date.

Coronaviruses need a host (animal or human) to grow in and cannot grow in food. Thorough cooking is expected to kill the virus because we know that a heat treatment of at least 30min at 60ºC is effective with SARS.

https://www.fsai.ie/faq/coronavirus.html

Frankly, I think buying packaged fruits and vegetables is not the way to go. If you're still worried after reading the reassurances above, perhaps you should simply follow what is called a neutropenic diet for a while. I had to do this when my husband was undergoing chemo and had next to no immune system: basically, no fresh fruits or raw vegetables (meaning no salad), everything cooked; I bought canned fruits (yuk, but better than nothing; the pears and such in natural juices are actually not that bad) and all vegetables were throughly cooked with steaming. Also, no rare meats; everything must be cooked well done. Otherwise, just observe good kitchen hygiene, and wash, wash your own hands before you cook.

[Kaleva]

17. What I read is that viruses can stay alive on a surface for a few hours to a few days

[Eyeball_Kid]

29. The current coronavirus reportedly can be viable on an inanimate surface for NINE DAYS.

It's a very hardy sort of virus, easily transmissible, can be carried and transferred by people with no symptoms, and can re-infect people who've had it.

[Kaleva]

34. I can stick to canned goods. That wouldn't be a problem.

[GoCubsGo]

19. If you're not going to eat it raw, cooking it will kill anything that's on it.

If you are that worried about it, treat your produce like you would raw chicken--which is probably a far bigger threat to your health than any possibility that the coronavirus is on your produce. As for the stuff you'll eat raw, the advice above to give it a vinegar wash. And, wash your hand after handling it.

[Kaleva]

33. But does the vinegar wash work on viruses?

It works on bacteria.

[defacto7]

20. There's no way fresh raw food is going to be germ free.

Just do your best. Use common sense. Vinegar, a drop of Ivory soap and rinse do wonders on vegis.

[Recursion]

21. The bigger issue with fresh produce is E coli

Both from cow waste runoff and from the fact that pickers aren't given sufficient bathroom time or facilities.

[Vinca]

22. Someone has handled them somewhere along the line so you might as well

just buy what you usually do and scrub the hell out of it.

[Kaleva]

25. Viruses don't last that long on a surface.

Something that's been bagged or wrapped probably has been that way for at least more then a few days. Open produce could have been handled by someone shortly before you did.

[stillcool]

24. I don't like what the bagged stuff...

is rinsed with. I worked in the restaurant/hotel biz, and what they put on the salad bar was pre-washed, but the preservatives gave it a weird taste. Rather wash my own, as the experience turned me off anything pre-cut, and preserved.
Here's an article for you...from NPR and Cooks Illustrated:

What Does It Take to Clean Fresh Food?

https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14540742

[Kaleva]

26. Does that work with viruses though?

That link is interesting and I bookmarked it.

[stillcool]

37. I don't know...

I looked up the differences between virus, and bacteria, and they're different, but after reading it I can't tell you why...cellular structure something, something.

[Demovictory9]

31. just bought some juicy oranges.

[Blecht]

35. Apples and Oranges - The coronavirus is not e. coli or listeria

No pun intended.

The coronavirus will not survive very long on a surface (fruits and vegetables count as surfaces).

Wash them as you normally would and you will be fine (unless you want to eat them just minutes after somebody else touched them). That's not the story for fruits and vegetables with e. coli or listeria -- they need to be dumped if there is an outbreak.

As for washing your hands for 20 seconds -- that's because we're always touching things that somebody else may have touched just seconds before, like the door to the restroom. We unconsciously touch our noses, mouths and eyes, which can get a virus into our bodies. That's why the best way to protect ourselves is to make ourselves aware of what our hands are doing and wash, wash, wash!

[Kaleva]

40. "Some coronaviruses can linger on surfaces for up to 9 days."

"But how long can the new coronavirus linger on surfaces, anyway? The short answer is, we don't know. But if this new coronavirus resembles other human coronaviruses, such as its "cousins" that cause SARS and MERS, it can stay on surfaces — such as metal, glass or plastic — for as long as nine days, according to a new study. (In comparison, flu viruses can last on surfaces for only about 48 hours.)"

https://www.livescience.com/how-long-coronavirus-last-surfaces.html

[malaise]

41. Why?

Just wash them with vinegar and water - nothing will stop me from buying fresh fruit.
It will have to kill me

[Kaleva]

43. Does vinegar work?

"Effectiveness of Common Household Cleaning Agents in Reducing the Viability of Human Influenza A/H1N1

These results also indicate that whilst vinegar and detergent disrupt the viral envelope proteins reducing infectivity, only bleach disrupts the viral genome."

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0008987

"More recently, US researchers from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine found that vinegar efficiently killed Mycobacterium tuberculosis — the bacteria that causes tuberculosis — after 30 mins of exposure to a six per cent acetic solution."

https://www.abc.net.au/news/health/2018-01-12/does-vinegar-really-kill-household-germs/8806878

"Regarding bleach working as well as vinegar, vinegar is NOT as effective as bleach and does NOT kill as many germs. Vinegar does kill some things but it is only 90% effective against bacteria and 80%-83% effective against viruses and mold/mildew. Bleach kills 99.9% of bacteria, viruses and mold/mildew. This information came from the health department. I encourage you to contact your local health department to confirm if you don’t believe these statistics."

https://www.livingonadime.com/vinegar-disinfect-as-well-as-bleach/

[malaise]

45. It's good enough for me

I'm already immune to a lot of stuff.

[NYC Liberal]

44. Definitely don't go to any hot bars either:

Link to tweet

[a la izquierda]

47. I disinfect all produce with these little drops..

That I buy in Mexico.
One nasty case of giardia taught me well.

[karynnj]

48. Alternative - buy locally if your area does not yet have any cases

In Vermont, winter vegetables are available. Various winter squash, kale, carrots, kohlrabi, turnips, radishes, potatioes, sweet potatoes are all available from the farmer's market. If Vermont has that much available - most of the country does too.