Please wash your salad.

I know that when I’m watching chefs on TV prepare food without washing things, I cringe.  Like plucking herbs off a plant and putting them right into a salad, dirt ‘n all. I know it’s because they’re on camera and they are in a make believe world where everything is perfect and clean. 

And I’m worried my salad at the restaurant isn’t being washed either. On top of many other things I worry about at restaurants.  It doesn’t matter if the bag of salad you purchased says triple washed, you should still wash it, because even a little particle of bacteria can multiply exponentially in that bag. Especially in raw foods nowadays.

Paranoid yet? You will be, just as I am.

So I washed a colander of salad under the faucet. This is enough washing for most of us. Then I decided to see how much dirt still remained on the leaves.

I soaked the leaves in a big bowl of water for a few minutes, swishing it around.

Then I put the leaves back in the colander, and this was what was left over.

I mean, it’s really not that big of a deal. I’m still alive. My husband is still alive. I never got sick eating my own salads I made at home.  But I don’t know many people who wash fruit before consuming it. So I wonder who even washes their salad at all.