Mistake: Prepping produce improperly.
You also don’t need to re-wash pre-washed greens, but you should wash produce that hasn’t been cleaned yet.
“Pre-washed produce is likely to have fewer bacteria—or none at all—than your kitchen sink or counter, and washing the greens may actually introduce bacteria,” McManus says. “We took swabs from pre-washed lettuce straight from the bag and swabs from lettuce we re-washed in the test kitchen. The re-washed lettuce grew bacteria in a petri dish, while the untouched pre-washed greens did not.”
Alternatively, Ryan Pfeiffer, executive chef at Blackbird in Chicago, Illinois, says it’s important to wash produce that hasn’t gone through the wringer yet. “This is especially important for things that grow in or close to the ground, including root vegetables,” he says.
How to fix it: Use pre-washed produce as-is; otherwise, “strong washing should be done on potatoes and other root vegetables, like carrots and parsnips. Special care should be taken with berries as to not ruin them,” Beckman says.
When it comes to berries, rinse gently and immediately before use. Generally, you should rinse all fruit before you cut them to avoid introducing contaminants on the skin to the flesh, to limit impact to the quality of the produce, and to reduce the speed of oxidation.
