Basuh buah & sayur

You need to clean your greens. Keep the goodness and vitamins, but wash away the pesticides and chemicals.

renita@thestar.com.my

EVER wondered where your lettuce, choi sam, carrots and other vegetables have been? Chances are they were grown in fields loaded with fertilisers and chemicals, or treated with pesticides and herbicides. Even organically-grown vegetables and those cultivated using the hydrophonic method are prone to contamination, especially at the point of packaging and handling.

While some might argue that the pesticide residue on fruits and vegetables is considered to be at a level that's safe for human consumption, do you really want to take the risk of ingesting more hazardous chemicals into your system? And what about bacterial contamination? With all these hazards about, taking just a few minutes to wash your produce will keep you and your family healthy and give you peace of mind.

Lin Sheau Wei, managing director of For Fresh People, a kitchen/cafe for health food, says there are several methods to properly clean fruits and vegetables. One of them is to add salt to a bowl of water and rinse the vegetables and fruits in the water.

Wash before eating: Fruits and vegetables may become contaminated at any point along the journey to your table so it's important to wash them thoroughly before you eat them.

"I use this method at my restaurant and at home to clean the leafy greens and fruit; it removes the residue," she says. However, try not to soak vegetables for more than a half hour or they might spoil, she cautions. Another way to clean them is with organic vegetable detergent, although this is viewed by some as unnecessary. "I've used them a few times and it's quite useful, especially for apples or grapes," Lin says.

Machines are also available these days specifically for washing vegetables, as shared by The Star's food columnist Amy Beh.

However, for those who want to wash their produce the easy way, here are a few tips:

Wait until just before you eat or prepare your fruits and vegetables to wash them. Fruits and vegetables have natural coatings that keep moisture inside, and washing them will make them spoil sooner.

Wash all pre-packaged fruits and vegetables, even if the label claims they are pre-washed.

Wash all parts of your fruits and vegetables, even if you don't plan on eating them. Bacteria can live on the rind of an orange or the skin of a cucumber, for example. Though you may peel them away and toss them in the trash, the bacteria can be transferred from the outside of the fruit or vegetable to the knife you use to cut them, and then onto the parts you will be eating.

Gently rub fruits and vegetables under running water. Don't use any soap, bleach or other toxic cleaning chemical which is not intended for use on food. Fruits and vegetables are porous and can absorb the detergents, and consuming them may make you sick.

Remove and discard the outer leaves of lettuce and cabbage heads, and thoroughly rinse the rest of the leaves.

Produce with firm skin or hard rind like carrots, potatoes, melons or squash may be scrubbed with a vegetable brush and water.

Add 2 tablespoons of white distilled vinegar to one pint water and use to wash fresh fruits and vegetables, then rinse thoroughly. Research has shown that vinegar helps kill bacteria on fruits and vegetables, according to The Vinegar Institute

(http://www.versatilevinegar.org/usesandtips.html#3).

Other Internet sources: nutrition.about.com & http://
www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/nutrition/00050.html

 Psst: Sebenarnya walau bagaimana lama pun tuan membasuh atau membilas sayur2an atau buah2an yg telah diracun, tak kira dengan air garam, air ozon atau apa apa jenis air, kesan tinggalan (residual) racun akan masih tetap berada di atas permukaan sayur2an atau buah2an tadi ...