It probably never occurred to you to wash a banana before peeling it. It just doesn’t seem to make sense because you will discard the peel afterward. Well, it turns out you should wash bananas before peeling them, and that makes perfect sense.
Tamika Sims, senior director of food technology communications at the International Food Information Council, recently had a chat with HuffPost in which she explained why you should wash bananas and other fruits and veggies with thick, removable skin. According to Sims, there is dirt and microbes on their skin that could find their way to the consumable part of the fruit or a vegetable.
“You should be washing produce that has a peel with clean running water, even if you plan to discard it,” Sims said. “This is a best practice in safe food handling to minimize the transfer of dirt or microbes that may be on the skin to the fruit on the inside that you plan to consume.”
It is also recommended to wash any produce that you intend to cut or prepare in another way. This is because the knife can push any microbes or dirt to the inside during cutting.
Experts agree that washing isn’t a perfect method that will keep you safe at all times, but that it minimizes the risk greatly.
