Why you should wash avocados
Do you also regularly toss avocado into your salad or eat it on toast with salmon? Delicious, but keep it healthy by holding your hands and your avocado under the tap beforehand.
If you don’t wash your avocado before cutting it open, things can go seriously wrong. This can cause you to ingest the bacteria salmonella or listeria, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Skin
Even though it may seem as if the avocado’s thick, rough skin protects you from these kinds of bacteria, that’s not the case. In fact, that’s precisely where those nasty bugs are found. If you don’t wash it and then touch the avocado with your contaminated hands, the bacteria can spread very easily, making you sick.
Contaminated
The FDA examined 1,615 avocado skins. More than seventeen percent of them were contaminated with listeria. One percent of the avocado skins were contaminated with salmonella. Even though that isn’t much, there is still a chance you could become infected.
Under the tap
In other words: wash your avocado (and your hands) before you get to work. The FDA recommends scrubbing it thoroughly with a brush. It takes very little effort, and it can prevent a whole lot of trouble.
