Home » Food For Thought » Homemade Fruit & Veggie Wash
by Taesha Butler on Apr 8, 2020 (updated Aug 8, 2024)
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This easy homemade fruit and veggie wash is a great little trick for cleaning your produce when you bring it home and helping it to last longer! It is natural, inexpensive and made with something you probably already have in your kitchen.
This post contains Amazon affiliate links, though all opinions are my own.
Why should you should was your produce?
I mean, besides not knowing who or what has touched your fruits and veggies before they made it to your home during the growing, harvesting and shipping process (grossssss)? Produce (even organic) has been sprayed with pesticides, preservatives (like wax) and other such things before it makes it to your home.
Yep. Even organic fruits and veggies have pesticides (just a different formula that will have been approved by the USDA for organic produce. So, even if you are buying and eating organic produce, giving your fruits and veggies a good cleaning is always a good idea.
Something important to remember about homemade fruit and veggie wash
Homemade or store bought, there is no perfect fruit and veggie wash that can remove all pesticides, bacteria, mold, bugs and yuck that hitched a ride during the picking and shipping process. The only way to 100% know what is (and is not) on your food is to grow it yourself. However, since that isn’t a realistic thing for many of us most of us a good fruit and veggie wash is the next best thing to helping your produce be as clean as possible before eating it.
The below recipe is the natural homemade fruit and veggie wash that I have used for years to clean my family’s food.
Make sure to rinse all your fruits and veggies well after soaking.
My homemade fruit and veggie soak has salt and vinegar in it as natural cleaning agents. So you will want to rinse those off once they are done killing mold, washing away dirt and making your produce squeaky clean.
Once finish soaking your fruits and make sure to give your fruits and vegetables a thorough rinsing under fresh water.
Make sure to let your produce air dry
Moisture can also make your fruits and veggies go bad quickly, so make sure to let your cleaned and rinsed produce air dry after you have cleaned them.
I like to spread it out on a clean tea cloth or dish towel on my counter after it has been cleaned and then put it aways after it is nice and dry.
You can use a salad spinner to speed up the drying process if you like!
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5 from 4 votes
Homemade Fruit and Veggie Wash
This easy homemade fruit and veggie wash is a great little trick for cleaning your produce when you bring it home and helping it to last longer! It is natural, inexpensive and made with something you probably already have in your kitchen.
Prep Time2 minutes mins
Cook Time20 minutes mins
Keyword: DIY fruit & veggie wash, DIY fruit and veggies soak, Homemade fruit and veggie soak, natural fruit & veggie soak, Natural fruit and veggie wash
Calories:
Author: Taesha Butler
Ingredients
- cold water
- 1/4 cup distilled white vinegar
- 2 tbsp salt
Instructions
Fill a large bowl or a clean sink with cold water. Add in vinegar and salt, stirring with your hands to mix everything in help the salt to dissolve.
Add your fruits and veggies to the wash.
Let your produce soak for about 20 minutes.
Remove your fruits and vegetable from the soak and rinse well with clean water.
Spread out on clean towels and let your produce dry completely before storing it as you normally do.
Cooking How To's Food For Thought
originally published on Apr 8, 2020 (last updated Aug 8, 2024)
20 commentsLeave a comment »
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Comments
20 comments on “Homemade Fruit & Veggie Wash”
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stacey —Reply
This is great! My older kids will buy big amounts (Costco size) of fruit & it goes bad so quickly.
Rachel Ball —Reply
This is an awesome tip for tender seasonal fruit this time of year!
israa qafisheh —Reply
great tip, i will try it!
Brianne —Reply
I’ve heard about using vinegar, but not salt! How does the salt help clean the produce? Thanks!! 🙂Taesha —Reply
This article claims that salt is a natural disinfectant that helps to eliminate pesticide residue. I started adding it to my soak after I read it and like how it helps!
https://www.livestrong.com/article/505005-how-to-soak-vegetables-fruit-in-sea-salt-water-to-remove-pesticides/Catherine Patterson —Reply
Thanks for the info on the Homemade Fruit & Veggie Wash. Do you know if the fruits/Veggies will absorb any of the salt/sodium after being soaked in the mixture of cold water, vinegar & salt?
It’s important that I minimize my daily sodium intake to ensure I don’t exceed my daily limit of 2,000 mg of sodium (I was diagnosed with Congestive ♥ Failure in 2018 )Taesha Butler —Reply
While I definitely suggest rinsing the fruit + veggie wash off very well after cleaning your produce, I can’t say for sure that some salt wouldn’t be left behind. While I don’t think the sodium amount would be remotely notable, you could omit the salt to be on the extra safe side for your situation and just do the vinegar and water.
Ann —Reply
How long does it normally take fruits/veggies to dry?
Taesha —Reply
It depends on a lot of things. During warmer and/or dryer months, maybe an hour or less. I also spread the produce out on towels to dry. If I am washing something like greens, I separate the leaves so there isn’t any trapped moisture. A salad spinner is a great thing to invest in to also speed up the process of drying.
ปั้มไลค์ —Reply
Like!! I blog frequently and I really thank you for your content. The article has truly peaked my interest.Kayla —Reply
Does it alter the tase of the fruit or veggie?
Taesha —Reply
I don’t find that it does as long as your rinse the fruits and veggies well after soaking.
Shannon —Reply
I plan to try this – but roughly how much water would you add the ingredients to? Too much water and it seems the vinegar and salt would be too diluted to work.
Taesha Butler —Reply
I usually just fill my kitchen sink about 1/3 full with water, but I’d say about 4-5 gallons of water.
Nancy —Reply
I’m curious as to how this helps the shelf life of veggies, as opposed to not washing them. Also, will it wilt lettuce? I’ve washed kale and Swiss chard from the garden and have stored it successfully after washing, but I’ve never washed lettuce.
Thank you.
Taesha Butler —Reply
I find that it washes off mold spores that are hanging out on your produce and start the rotting process earlier. This is just my personal experience, of course. I also wash my lettus head of time and always use cold water to prevent wilting. I always make sure to dry it very well before storing!
Soraya —Reply
This looks amazing . How much vinegar is ¼ cup? Because I only have a little bit left in my cupboard, could I just add a rough tablespoon?
Taesha Butler —Reply
1/4 cup is about 4 tablespoons.
