Danger can lurk even in rinsed fruit
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Blanche DuBois didn’t die of eating an unwashed grape, but you might. Fruit can carry harmful pathogens like salmonella, E. coli and listeria — and washing the surface is no guarantee that you won’t get sick because the toxins may be lurking inside.
“Contamination can happen anywhere, and consumers should know,” says Luke LaBorde, a food science professor at Penn State University, who cautioned against assuming a quick wipe will be enough.
Even if you have full confidence in your local grocer, your fruit may have been contaminated at the source. For example, processing plants drop fruit into wash tanks where bacteria can collect (albeit rarely).
That doesn’t apply to consumers who clean a piece of fruit with tap water — but poisons can seep into cuts and punctures in the item, or even through the stem, LaBorde says.
Get sick from a piece of fruit? Believe it: Thirty-five people got sick — and seven died — from listeriatainted caramel apples last year when the pathogen sneaked in after the sticks were inserted, bringing the contamination from the fruit’s skin to the inside. Toxins can hitch a ride on fruit if farmers are improperly using raw manure or their pickers aren’t washing up well enough, LaBorde adds. So, do you need to be afraid of your fruit and produce? Yes! In 2015, salmonella-laced cucumbers killed six people and sickened 907 across 40 states. And the scourge of dirty produce continues. “About 48 million Americans contract a foodborne illness every year, and fresh fruits and vegetables account for half,” says Prof. Sanja Ilic, a food safety specialist from Ohio State University. Foodborne contaminants send about 128,000 people to the hospital — and 3,000 to the grave every year, the feds say. That’s roughly the same number of Americans who drown annually.
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