Fresh fruits and vegetables are a sign that summer is here and just like any other fresh food, there are food safety principles that should be used with your fruits and vegetables. Whether you get them from the grocery store, roadside produce stand or your own garden, fresh fruits and vegetables can cause foodborne illness. That’s because fresh produce is often eaten raw. In fact, in recent years the proportion of cases of foodborne illness linked to fresh fruits and vegetables has increased.
To help consumers keep fruits and vegetables safe to eat, the Partnership for Food Safety Education (www.fightbac.org) gives six recommendations for safe handling of fresh produce:
* Check: Food safety for fresh fruits and vegetables begins at the store. Before purchasing, make sure the produce is not bruised, cut or damaged. If purchasing items that are pre-cut, such as melons, or packaged, such as salads, buy only the items that have been kept refrigerated.
* Clean: Hands should be washed in warm, soapy water for at least 20 seconds before and after handling fresh produce. Make sure cutting boards, counter tops, peelers and knives are also clean before using them.
Fresh produce should be rinsed under running tap water before you eat it. That’s also true for fruits and vegetables that have rinds or skins that will not be eaten. Many people don’t realize they need to scrub the outside of melons with a vegetable brush or rub them with their hands under running water. If bacteria contaminate the outside of a melon for example, when you slice into it you have the potential of bringing that contamination into the fruit.
* Separate: In the grocery cart, keep fresh fruits and vegetables away from such items as cleaners, detergents, and raw meat, poultry, and fish. At home, that advice also holds true during storage in the refrigerator and during preparation. Do not use the same cutting board for produce and meats unless it is cleaned with hot, soapy water before and after food preparation.
* Cook: If fresh produce has been in contact with raw meat, poultry, fish, or their juices, throw it away or cook it thoroughly.
* Chill: To prevent bacterial growth, store all cut, peeled, or cooked produce in the refrigerator within two hours.
* Throw away: Fresh fruits and vegetables that have not been refrigerated within two hours of cutting, peeling, or cooking should be thrown away. Remove and throw away bruised or damaged portions of fresh produce before cooking or eating it raw. Any fruit or vegetable that will not be cooked and that has been contaminated by raw meat, poultry, fish or their juices should also be thrown away. Always remember the best food safety principle “If in doubt, throw it out!”
Educational programs of the Texas AgriLife Extension Service are open to all people without regard to race, color, sex, disability, religion, age or national origin. The Texas A&M University System, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the County Commissioners’ Courts of Texas Cooperating
