memes @lemmy.world

3mo ago

Food safety

104 comments

Why would you expect tap water to kill bacteria?
You’re washing bugs and dirt off.
- Its also wash out bacteria.
  
  The mechanical action of water running and wiping is what takes out 90% of germs and bacteria already. Soap is only responsible for that next 9%.
  There's still 1% unless you autoclave it.
  Tldr: You probably don't need soap for dishes if you wash them during initial rinse immediately after use and they aren't super gross.
  You still want to wash and soap your hands cause 10% of cold germs is plenty.
  Also quit licking your fingers to open the plastic bags for produce at the store you filthy fucks.
- the belief that a quick 3 second rinse will kill off bacteria seems to be consistent with the ways that most people try to wash their hands
- No I'm not!
- I don't think that salad bought in a store should have bugs and dirt on it, if you find them in your sink when you wash it you should change supermarket
  EDIT: My bad, I was thinking about pre packaged salad, not like a whole head of lettuce, OP is correct and OOP should wash their lettuce better
  
  They're definitely washed after being harvested, but as someone who has seen how it's stored between that and the store shelves, I'll give it a rinse every time.
  
  You might be thinking of pre-packaged salad which, while already washed, can still contain bacteria. But if you’re buying plain lettuce, it’s absolutely not pre-washed.
  
  Bro people poop in the fields because they literally just don't have time to go back to the restroom in between shifts of picking
  And I don't blame them in the slightest. They have a very hard job
  So I don't know about you but I will always be washing any produce that I buy at the grocery store as soon as I bring it in my house
  
  Lettuce grows in a bundle of very tightly packed leaves. At no part in the growing - transport - shelving - selling chain can anyone be expected to thoroughly wash between the leaves, especially near the root. Rinse your veggies before using.
  
  Bugs mean fresh and no pesticides!
  BUGS GOOD!
  It’s like finding soil on your tubers. It’s better to have to wash it off.
  
  I don't know where you live but I'm in Australia and I also lived in South America and I've seen plenty of dirt, caterpillars, aphids and flies too many times on my lettuce, harvested from different sources, seasons, and purchased from different supermarket chains and small grocer shops.
  And it was never a problem for me. Where are you getting your sterile lettuce from, so I make sure I don't?
  
  Even pre packaged, check the package to confirm if you need to clean it or not
  
  I don't think
  Yeah, we know...
  
  I've been using Original Commenter (OC) to talk about the person who starts a comment thread. Seems to be pretty intuitive. Wonder what the acronym would be for commenters responding to OC and starting different comment branches. Probably makes sense to just use their name

Who rinses things to remove bacteria? I just want to remove dirt.
- We tell ourselves these lies, as we fear the truth.
- Only because you don't like the color, or maybe the texture of dirt?
  
  Eating a little bit of dirt probably won't hurt you, but it is unpleasant.
  
  Also because gritty lettuce makes a salad I don't eat. Spinach is the worst . . . plus it seems to have Listeria from time to time . . . 3.2 second wash minimum
  
  Both the texture and whatever may be in it are undesirable.

You wash because of the pesticides.
- Also the bugs, fecal matter, and dirt that can be in the folds and pockets.
  
  Ok, but what about the ~~salad~~ lettuce?
- You wash it because of the ratlungworm that raw snail and slug can give you.
  
  Oh fuuuuck. Nature is crazy 😬
  Shit like this is why I don't believe there's a god
- They've studied that and it doesn't get rid of pesticides.
  To get rid of pesticides you need to immerse it in a baking soda solution for about 20 minutes.
  
  They've studied it and you're wrong
  https://portal.ct.gov/caes/fact-sheets/analytical-chemistry/removal-of-trace-pesticide-residues-from-produce
  The correct answer is 9/12 pesticides are removed by Simple rinsing with water. Detergents do not improve results compared to mechanical removal via rinsing for 30 seconds.
  
  Probably depends a lot on the pesticides and therefore country...
  
  Thank you. I thought that pesticides wouldn't come off with simple rinsing.

Bodies are pretty OK with dietary bacteria. Same goes for dirt, bugs, and Will Arnett.
- Is ... Is that Will Arnett?? Or am I missing the joke?? It doesn't look like him to me.
  
  This is Mark Hoppus from Blink-182
  
  It's mark hoppus from blink-182
  
  Oh damn, you’re right! I skimmed past thinking it was one of these lol
  
  Yeah no idea who that is in OP

Ha bacteria! It's not the water you should be worried about.
It's the quart gallon of vodka I wash it down with each night, as I try to blot out my existence.
Fuck you bacteria (and my liver), I WIN!
- If you really think about it your liver is just a massive collection of bacteria

Err, your immune system can cope with a bit of bacteria. But if you don't wash your salad and get a massive load into yourself, your body will deal with it by extorting everything in your stomach. E.g. you'll puke the entire night. You're welcome.
- When you rinse salad with water you are not cleaning a significant amount of bacteria off it. You're getting soil and bugs.
  Unless your salad is contaminated with something, not washing it will at worst be gritty and unpleasant. It won't make you ill. If it does, washing it will make no difference.
  
  What do you even mean? Obviously, you are washing off all the bacteria that is in the soil and the bugs. It doesn't make it sterile, but rinsing makes the overall amout of bacteria significantly lower....
  
  Clearly you haven't heard of rat lungworm.
  
  u a science man/woman?
- if you don't wash your salad and get a massive load into yourself
  Who spunks on a salad?
  
  Men of culture (bacterial)
  
  Horus for one
- a massive load
  How about a pile?

The level of idiocy needed to think that the reason you rinse it is to kill bacteria is disturbing to imagine.

Yeah I just don't like the feel of dirt grit and bugs in my teeth.
- Yeah I wash my vegetables for grit. I don't even care that much about bugs, but even the slightest amount of grit is terrible.

I don't know if this is effective, my wife soak the veggies in baking powder/baking soda, I forgot which. She said it kills bugs. Who am I to argue.
- Baking soda is sodium bicarbonate. Dissolving it in water will increase its pH. I'm not sure if that works for killing bacteria.
- You're thinking of vinegar. Soak them in vinegar.

Here’s me raw dogging my salads.

There are customers visiting my company. I was washing my hand in the bathroom sink when one of them, after doing his business, put his left hand behind, opened the faucet with the right, wet his fingers, closed the faucet, and left. Disgusting piece of shit.
- I see this every time I go to a public bathroom. I fucking hate people for it

It probably doesn’t do much, but I soak it in water with vinegar for 10 minutes.
- I assume the ratio is low enough on the vinegar that it doesn't impact the taste?
  Can't imagine it would hurt anything if it doesn't affect the texture.
  
  Yup, 2-3 teaspoons in a bowl of water. I rinse it with water again after soaking and that washes away any sourness left behind.
  
  Plenty of salad dressings are just hopped up vinegars anyway.
- Yall are crazy. You're literally like 10 pounds of bacteria. 😁
  
  I mean, if you want to include e.coli to your 10 pounds of bacteria, be my guest. Taking some precautions doesn't hurt.

🎶 "All these, microscopically small things, worms shaped, like rings, inside, my gut, shoot-ing, from my butt" 🎶
- 🎶 "Norovirus sucks" 🎶
  🎶 "I know" 🎶

If you can't scrub every lettuce leaf with borax before you eat it, you don't even deserve a salad.

I understand the idea of removing the basic dirt and grim that could still be left on the surface of the lettuce. But the idea that running the vegetable under the water has any help in sterilizing it has to be pseudoscience. Too many adults have this mentality that washing produce purchased from the grocery store drastically reduces your chance of food born illness. If your food is contaminated with harmful microscopic organisms in a food outbreak. I doubt washing it is going to change much.

All the - small things.

She'll be right

104 comments