If your diet includes a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables, you are on the road to good health. If you have a hectic schedule-and who doesn't?-you may be tempted to cut corners when preparing foods. You also may not always remember that "fresh" or "organic" doesn't necessarily equal "clean." If you are not cleaning fruits and veggies properly, you may be inviting trouble into your home.

The Importance of Cleaning Fruits and Vegetables

According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine, roughly 76 million people become ill every year in the United States from eating contaminated foods. The Centers of Disease Control and Prevention have identified more than 250 different diseases that result from food contamination.

The most common culprits are the bacteria Campylobacter, Salmonella and E. coli 0157:H7 while the honors in the viral category go to calicivirus. These 3 bacteria enter your kitchen through the raw meats and poultry that you are preparing to cook. Experts are uncertain exactly how calicivirus is transmitted, but suspect foods are contaminated when the foods are handled with people who are infected with this virus.

Cleaning fruits and vegetables is not just about bacteria and viral infections. Commercial growers use pesticides to kill insects. Your fruits and vegetables may have residues of these chemicals on their skins.

Don't be fooled into complacency about organic fruits and vegetables or fruits and vegetables that you grow in your own yard. These fruits and veggies still have dirt on them. They have had birds and insects around them. Organic fruits and vegetables have also been handled on their journey to your kitchen by other people who may be sick or may have inadvertently cross-contaminated your produce. So before you start digging into your fresh fruits and veggies, you need to make sure they are clean and ready for safe consumption.

Your kitchen sink and counters may be teaming with hungry microbes that are just waiting to catch a ride into your body even if you are good about keeping your kitchen clean. You may have missed a bit of juice from that chicken you just put in the oven. Your cat might have jumped up to look out your kitchen window while you were gone. One of your kids may have sneezed and then touched the sink. Battling bacteria and viruses, let alone simple dirt, are part of everyday life.

Before you start to clean your fruits and vegetables, wash your sink and counters with hot, soapy water and then rinse. If you use a cutting board, do the same. To get a cutting board even cleaner, rinse the board with a mixture of 1/2 teaspoon of chlorine bleach combined with 2 cups of water. Try to use a separate cutting board for meat and produce to help avoid cross-contamination.

While this may sound redundant with all of the cleaning you are doing, but don't forget to wash your hands. If you don't, you may not only contaminate your fruits and veggies, your fruits and veggies may end up with a soapy taste. Wash your hands for 20 seconds with soap and hot water before you start handling your produce and re-wash your hands after handling any raw meats.

To ensure that your fruits and veggies are clean and safe for eating, wash all of your fruits and vegetables individually under running water. Scrub the outside of the fruit or vegetables with a brush or rub with your hands, including the outsides of fruits and vegetables with rinds. Even if you don't eat the rinds of melons or watermelons, you can transfer bacteria and dirt into them when you cut or slice the fruit.

When you are finished cleaning your fruits and veggies, let them dry on paper towels. When you are done with the produce, throw the towels away and clean your counters, cutting boards and sink.

Even if you are in a rush, avoid soaking fruits and vegetables together in water in the sink. Your fruits and vegetables may cross-contaminate each other.

Your knives should be also clean before you start to slice and dice. If you use the same knife with raw meats and vegetables, you may transfer harmful microbes to your produce. Don't use dirty knives on either meats or produce.

Cleaning Fruits and Veggies: The List

Cleaning fruits and veggies isn't just about washing and drying your produce. Not all fruits and vegetables should be handled alike.

• Remove and discard the outer leaves on any types of lettuce that you are using in your salad before washing. The inside leaves will be "cleaner."
• Hull strawberries after you wash them.
• Trim off the outer leaves of cauliflower before you run your cauliflower under water.
• Remove stems and hull tomatoes after washing.
• Remove the stems and hull peppers after you wash them. If you are working with hot peppers, clean the area thoroughly before you start into another fruit or vegetable. You probably don't want the "heat" on your other produce.
• Banana peels can be "dirty." You may inadvertently transfer bacteria from the peel to the banana if you don't wash the banana before peeling it.
• Treat cabbages like lettuce. Remove the outer leaves before you wash a cabbage.
• Scrub the outsides of carrots and potatoes before you peel them.
• If you are shelling peas, wash the pods first.
  
  Tips on Cleaning Fruits and Vegetables

These tips will help you keep your produce fresh and safe:

• Wash your produce just before you plan on using it. The washing process can cause produce to spoil more quickly.
• Make sure that the interior of your refrigerator is clean.
• Store your meat in a separate area from your produce in your refrigerator.
• If you can, cut your fruits into pieces at home rather than buying cut fruits prepared at a store.
• If you buy bagged lettuce that has been pre-washed, wash the lettuce again anyway.

You'll enjoy your fresh fruits and veggies the most by cleaning them thoroughly before you start eating. Plus you'll have the peace of mind knowing you've done everything you can to keep you and your family safe from foodborne illnesses.