Fruits that Need Washing

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Aug 3, 1911

Fruits that Need Washing

THE best fruits to eat are those with inedible rinds, or skins, because in removing these we remove all injurious matter that may have lodged on the outer surface. Fruits with skins that are occasionally eaten, like the apple, are not so good, from this point of view, because we are apt, in consuming the skin, to get with it much that is objectionable; and fruits with no skins, like most berries, are worst of all. These require thorough washing, and they seldom get it. All this and more we learn from a brief editorial in the Lancet (London). The writer especially decries the popular strawberry, not only because it is skinless, but also because it grows close to the ground, and hence is particularly apt to be dirty. We read:—

“Freshly peeled fruits are probably aseptic, and in this category may be included such familiar examples as the apple, pear, peach, apricot, orange, and banana. The peel in these instances has obviously no part in the dietetic quality of the fruit, and few persons, we imagine, are tempted to consume the protective coating; it has no attractive flavor, and it is commonly tough and indigestible.

“The strawberry, however, has no shield in the shape of a peel, and it would be very surprising if the fruit, as it reaches the consumer, was free from external taint, considering that it is peculiarly liable to contamination. It matters little under what conditions the banana or the orange is picked and packed, because before these fruits are consumed, they are skinned, and hence the impurities due to handling or to insanitary packing or environment are, to a great extent, removed, though we say this with reservations.

“The strawberry flourishes in a ‘bed,’; it is within splashing distance of the fertilizers used to encourage its growth and maturity; it is picked by hands not necessarily under sanitary control; and, lastly, in transit it may easily encounter surroundings which need no bacteriological proof to show them hygienically objectionable. The strawberry should certainly be washed; the process is simple, and need not in recognizable degree detract from the highly esteemed characteristics of the fruit, while the small attention which washing involves may likely enough reap a great reward in averting a disaster to health. This injunction is not so absurd nor superfluous as some may think, when it is considered how liable the strawberry is to contamination.

“Most cleanly disposed people, if they visited strawberry-fields in full process of picking, would soon regard the washing of the berry before it came to the table, or before they consumed it, as imperative. Apart from the questionable cleanliness of the picker’s person, it must be remembered that the surface of the fruit is liable to be sticky, and therefore to hold any impurity with which it may come in contact.

“Further, the strawberry’s exterior, in bacteriological parlance, affords an excellent nutritive or culture medium for organisms. ‘Never eat an unwashed strawberry,’ is therefore neither absurd nor unsound counsel; and those who think that to subject the fruit to such treatment spoils its flavor are invited now, while strawberries are cheap and plentiful, to make the experiment.”—Selected.