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I know I should care, but I just honestly forget to wash them. Now that I think about it, it sort of grosses me out that I don't. I know there are probably a lot of grubby hands that touch it before I manage to put those granny smith's into my basket.

Uhm, to be honest, I don't wash my fruit. Call me crazy, if you want, I guess. But for better or worse, I just throw them in my mouth. I don't think it grosses me out as much as it maybe should...

Yuck! Wash your fruit! (And your vegetables.)

Yeah I forget sometimes but it's pretty important when it comes to grocery store stuff that gets sprayed every xx minutes with the automatic spray. I'd worry a lot less about U-pick or organic stuff from a Farmer's market.

Always wash my fruit, but never with those fruit sprays--too expensive. Use a little alcohol or just plain soap.

It doesn't matter that the fruit is organic. I don't want possum or skunk or squirrel spit on anything I eat. Our fruit trees are organic, but come on over sometime and watch what the wildlife does.

I heard on NPR that the best method for washing is to spray a 1:1 solution of white vinegar and water and then rinse. this is great for fruits like apples. It gets a little more complex for things like lettuces, but then I suppose you'd be dressing the salad eventually, so you could rinse them in a tub of 1:1 vingar solution, and then rinse, and if some stayed on, it would probably be masked by the dressing.

I was in culinary school for pastry/baking and was surprised when my instructors said that she'd never worked in a restaurant that washed its berries - they get too mushy too quickly that way. Sure enough, I did an externship in very highly rated restaurant and was told never to wash blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, etc. Sometimes they were organic, sometimes they weren't.

As a nurse who deals with MRSA in some form or another on an almost weekly basis, I say WASH YOUR FRUIT!

Bacteria like staph, salmonella or e.coli is WAY more likely to make you or your children sick than pesticides, waxes or chemicals. Those are bad too, but seriously: stand in a market, (super or farmer's) and watch how many people touch the fruit. And think how many people touched it before it was set out on display! Also, many organic veggies are grown in MANURE, and are transported and handled in VERY close proximity to fruits.

Bacteria need warmth and moisture to thrive, and many fruits are ideal breeding grounds for it. People scream all the time about safe handling of meats, but I can guarantee that fruits and veggies are just as likely culprits of food poisoning as anything else, sometimes even more so.

So WASH the stuff, folks. A simple plea from your friendly neighborhood healthcare provider!

That NPR report SassySally refers to was on the heels of the September 2007 issue of Cooks' Illustrated, which had an article about this very topic - specifically apples and pears. It's a great rundown of all the methods, with a bacterial test to see which method works best. The vinegar solution won for least bacteria present, but a simple scrub brush under running water was a close second.

re: Mangosteen - interesting they say never to wash berries!

I have always washed ALL of my food, but this season I stopped washing berries because I found the texture of wet berries so unappealing. Everyone told me I was crazy. Ha ha I win.

I know I should wash fruits, but I sometimes forget, especially for the organic stuff. I always wash veggies though, since they aren't really things I eat plain, so I wash them as I do food prep.

I couldn't imagine eating fruit which is not washed, except for bananas, oranges, magoes (which I peel). I can't wrap my mind around it at all. I know that rinsing berries makes them mushy and causes mold so I rinse them briefly and then spread on a paper towel to dry immediately before use, but still could never bring myself to not wash. I have heard some pretty bad stories and would never think of eating without at least a quick rinse.

I always wash (with water) when I'm going to eat it raw. Too much bad bacteria out there these days (although I have a cast iron stomach and never seem to get bugs).

But...when I'm going to be boiling veg or cooking fruit, I don't always wash it, I confess. I do if it is non-organic, or visibly dirty, but I always thought, if you are cooking it, won't that kill the germs? Maybe I'm kidding myself!

I've always used a basic soap to wash the larger fruits and veggies, but just soak or rinse the smaller stuff. Friends have mentions this is weird, but I was raised by a nurse who insisted we sanitize everything, so I dunno.