Is it important to wash fruit before eating? Of course, the answer is “yes.” According to the National Health Service:
It is always advisable to wash all fruit and vegetables before you eat them to ensure they are clean and to help remove bacteria from the outside.
Similar advice has been around for a long time. According to a 1920 home economics textbook:
All fruits that are eaten raw should be thoroughly washed. One never knows what has come in contact with the fruit through the handling or from exposure to the dirt and dust of the streets.
Even oranges, grapefruit, lemons, bananas, and melons, whose skins are to be discarded, should be washed and wiped to remove surface dirt. Small fruits such as grapes and berries should be thoroughly rinsed just before serving; they should never be allowed to stand in water.Â
Household Arts for Home and School (1920) by Anna M. Cooley and Wilhelmina H. Spohr
A Hundred Years Ago 
Oh, phooey. If fruits are dirty and dusty from the streets, or fresh from a pile in the grocery store, sure. But picked from a tree or vine? There’s another rule: two for the basket, one for the mouth!
Absolutely!
Works for me!
Always good to wash fruit.
I agree!
Love the second drawing,that lady must of sure had some serious dust issues.😂😂 fruit brought home from the grocery gets wash but fruit picked from the farm here .. well I’m like Shoreacres..two for the basket or maybe mouth.
It’s a fun picture! Strawberries eaten in the field while picking them are the best.
Always good advice.
I won’t even think of eating fruit that I bought at the store or market without washing it.
You know, there was really good advice here about not washing the berries until you serve them. Especially raspberries are awful if washed and stored.
It is very practical advice – both then and now.
Love this art work!
The artist was skilled and had a bit of a sense of humor. 🙂
Isn’t it nice to know that we’ve been doing the right things for a hundred years??
Good to know. 🙂
I recently read to add a dash of vinegar to rinse water for berries. It helps them keep a bit longer. But not for raspberries. I find I just use raspberries as soon as i get them.
Thank for the tip. I’m going to give it a try. Berries sure don’t stay in good condition for very long.
Too often I see grocery shoppers taking ans eating a grape right out of bag, testing them I guess.
I’ve also seen people eat grapes at the store. It doesn’t seem like a good idea – both from safety and an ethical perspectives.
Lovely to confirm we are still abiding by the wisdom of the ages!
Some things don’t change. 🙂
Yes and yes again! Ever since my SIL and her whole family got food poisoning from cutting up a melon without washing it, well, we wash everything.
Whew – it’s scary how they got sick form eating a melon without washing it. If there was anything that I might skip washing, it would be a melon.
Oh yes, wash everything, especially during a pandemic.xxx
Makes a lot of sense during these times.
I’m glad they were thinking about germs then – we sure are now! Except for when we camped I usually try to wash fruit, even with rinds…
So do I. Washing fruit just seems like the safest approach.
I guess once people started buying produce instead of growing it themselves this advice became necessary.
Makes sense – though I also generally wash produce from my garden.
I do too. I was just wondering why they felt the need to write out the advice.
I admit that I don’t wash things like oranges, because I don’t eat the rind. But for everything else, yes, I wash it!
Similarly to you, I consider whether something has a rind that I won’t eat when deciding how thoroughly to wash.
Especially peaches. They feel so gross before a wash.
Peaches have a unique skin. I think that the fuzz helps protect peaches from insects, but it has a strange feel.
Stood the test of time.. no different today..
How true- some things never change.
This made me smile! My mother was a germ fanatic (to a certain extent) and washed all fruits and vegetables. She even soaked lettuce in salt water to kill any bugs and then rinsed it several times before tearing it into a salad. She taught me well although I don’t wash oranges! It’s good advice especially for the time we are living through!
You comment reminds of of other tips that I’ve seen in hundred-year-old books and magazines that explained how to get bugs out of lettuce before serving. With store-bought lettuce that doesn’t seem to be much of a concern today, but apparently it was a major problem back in the day.