Is It Safe To Eat Fruits And Vegetables Without Washing Them?

If you're one of those people who like to sneak a grape or blueberry at the grocery store before filling your bag, just to make sure it's ripe and sweet, here's another reason why you shouldn't — you might be eating some nasty, potentially dangerous particles along with the unwashed fruit.

There are four excellent reasons why you should always wash produce before eating it or cooking with it: bugs, dirt, bacteria, and pesticides. Even those who aren't gardeners are aware that the package of celery they're holding was actually grown in soil. Some of those soil particles are likely to remain after harvesting, along with a few tiny critters that came along for the ride. If they're not washed off, eating insects, worms, or soil particles won't necessarily make you sick, but will probably contribute a pretty gritty, unappetizing bite to dinner.

A bigger problem is the very real possibility that pathogenic bacteria could be living on the surface of your lettuce or bell peppers. Aside from bacteria that are naturally occurring in the soil, there are many other opportunities for fruits and veggies to become contaminated. Even if it looks perfectly clean, it probably isn't. Philip Tierno, Ph.D., a clinical professor of microbiology and pathology at NYU Langone Medical Center, told SELF, "There's a whole host of people that handle raw fruits and vegetables, including the growers, the pickers, the truckers — many hands which contain different types of germs, potentially pathogens."