Why You Should Wash the Skin of Your Fruit Before You Remove It

This makes zero sense until it does. I mean washing fruits and vegetables is second nature for most of us before eating them and even cooking them even though I'm sure the heat burns off anything we're trying to avoid eating. And yes, we've all at some point even taken a bite of an apple or popped some grapes in our mouth without rinsing them off first.

Honestly, though, why would anyone ever think to wash a fruit that needs peeling before eating it? The peel, which is protecting the fruit already just goes into the trash, compost, or garbage disposal after we peel it away from the fruit.

Have you ever rinsed off an avocado or banana? I know I have never washed an orange, kiwi, or any fruit that is protected by a peel.

According to the Tasting Table website, that's not a smart move healthwise. The grimy dirt and germs that are on fruits can be a cesspool for microorganisms. Ewwwwwww, am I right? Did your stomach just turn thinking about that piece of fruit you ate without rinsing it?

And even though grocery stores spray water on fruits, the disgustingness I mentioned above, according to Tasting Table, can be a cesspool of lingering pesticides or microbes like salmonella or campylobacter that can seep through to the edible goodness of fruit that we enjoy eating. According to Huff Post, all of this can cause foodborne illnesses even from organic varieties of fruit as well

So no matter what, wash all fruit no matter how thick the unedible skin is on the fruit. This goes for vegetables, as well.