This Viral TikTok Suggests Washing Produce In The Dishwasher — Don’t Do It
Between all the shopping, slicing, dicing and actual cooking, crafting a healthy dinner every night is both time- and energy-consuming. But a now-viral TikTok hack promises to make this daily chore a bit less exhausting: Instead of rinsing your fresh fruits and veggies by hand, let your dishwasher do the work.
Posted by @larad_official in June, the clip shows the user’s mom loading all three racks of a dishwasher with a medley of fruits and vegetables, including sweet potatoes, carrots, celery, limes, tomatoes and dragon fruit. By using the machine and some vinegar, “I think it’ll feel more clean because so many people touch [the produce],” she said in the clip.
Many commenters called this trick “genius” and a “game changer.” But according to food safety experts, the hack is anything but that.
“Oh my God, don’t do it — please, don’t,” said Dr. Kimberly Baker, director of the Food Systems and Safety Program Team at Clemson University.
Generally, Baker said all produce should be washed immediately before consumption or preparation (think: cutting). Although practices are in place to clean produce as it makes its way from the field to your plate, it still comes in contact with plenty of hands and machines as it’s harvested, processed, packaged and transported. Once it arrives in the grocery store or at the farmers’ market, it’s touched by employees and, often, fellow patrons if it’s not pre-packaged. In turn, there’s a risk of some types of yeasts, molds and pathogens— the latter of which can potentially cause foodborne illness — lingering on the surface of your fruits and veggies.
“There are a lot of places along that path or that system for that produce to become contaminated,” Baker said. “We don’t see contamination, so we have to do our best as the consumer to reduce [it].” And that means washing your fruits and veggies before eating or preparing, as cutting or peeling can transfer pathogens from the outside surface of the produce to the inside you’re eating, she said.
However, running your produce through the dishwasher’s rinse cycle isn’t the way to go about it. In reality, the dishwasher is further contaminating — not cleaning — your produce, said Matthew Taylor, a food safety expert and global senior manager of food consulting at NSF, which sets public health, safety, and sustainability standards for food products. “In my 24 years in the business [of] food safety, I’m quite surprised,” he said. “We should not be doing that. There is a clear risk.”
By and large, your dishwasher’s surface is coated with residue of the cleaning chemicals in your detergent. If you use rinse aid, there’s likely some leftover in the dispenser that will be released mid-cycle and come in contact with your produce, he explained.
What’s more, the filter at the bottom of the appliance probably isn’t cleaned after every single cycle, which means chunks of last week’s dinner will swirl around with your fruits and veggies. “You’ve got your filters, your arms that spin around — dismantle that and have a look underneath, and you’ll see all the grime that builds up over time,” Taylor said. “Well, imagine that getting into contact with the food that you’re going to eat. That’s not nice.”
Even if you give the filter a thorough scrub regularly, there’s still a small pool of water that sits at the bottom of the machine, Baker added. “Even if you’ve cleaned that filter, sanitized it, cleaned the inside surface — which, you know, who does that? — that water is still going to be contaminated,” she said. “You’re just putting contaminated water on the produce.”
Adding vinegar, as demonstrated in the TikTok, isn’t going to help sanitize, either. While it does kill pathogens, Baker says the vinegar needs to be in contact with the contaminated surface for such a long time to be effective you’d end up with pickled produce. “Vinegar is for pickling. Vinegar is for making our food tart,” she said. “Vinegar really is not a consumer-grade sanitizer or cleaner of any sort.”
Compounding the problem is the warm water temperature. Not only can this reduce the quality of your produce (hello, limp celery sticks), but it can also encourage the growth of pathogens. “Pathogens are not much different than us human beings,” Baker said. “You know, we like to be warm generally — not too hot, not too cold, just nice and warm. We like moisture. We like food. All those things are what pathogens need to grow on, as well. So you’re just adding a whole lot of risk using a dishwasher.”
The Best Way To Clean Your Fruits And Veggies
To adequately cleanse your produce, stick with the basics: Run your fruits and veggies under cool water straight from the tap, which dislodges and removes any contaminants, according to the experts. Ensure the water gets into all the nooks and crannies, scrubbing with clean fingers or using a brush strictly for produce if necessary, Baker suggested.
Running water is key. Some people like to wash their produce in a sink full of water, but its surface can be another source of pathogens, Baker said. Plus, if you mix fruits and veggies in one bath, you’re essentially moving molds, yeast and pathogens from one piece of produce to another — not getting rid of them entirely, she said. Don’t bother with the commercially available produce washes, either, as their safety and effectiveness aren’t known and haven’t been adequately tested, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Bottom line: Cleaning your produce by hand may take a few extra seconds, but it’s worth the hassle. Reserve your dishwasher for dirty plates and cutlery, and don’t believe everything you see online.
“There’s a lot of fun stuff on [TikTok], but…when we see stuff like this, you’ve got a question [it],” Taylor said. “Look, it’s not safe. Please don’t do that.”
