Washing fruits and vegetables tips

For the apples, having fallen to the ground is the least of their problems.  I worry more about sprays, and then secondly about maybe the hands of the people who handled it.  But you're pretty fussy, i think. I'm not so worried about floors. 

Maybe i've been inured living here.  Once in rome, i saw a delivery boy taking the rolls to the small grocery store from the bread bakery.  As they used to do as late as the 1980s, he brought them by bike, with a huge plastic basket attached (it was a specially made three wheeler).  The bike fell over when he got off and the rolls fell into the street, to the side of the sidewalk, near the gutter.  He just scooped them up and put them back in the basket!  An old italian saying says "bread is clean when it gets on the table!"  Another story my mother in law told, about when she worked in her father's store (1930s).  A peasant woman had the big loaf of casareccio bread she was buying sitting on the counter and sat her baby on top of it as she took out the money.  The baby peed on the bread, and when my mother in law pointed it out she said, "oh that's ok, it's from my little Bernadino"

Anyway, i tend to rub fruit and things that are hard and can be rubbed, one by one, while i hold them under running water.  I never felt just rinsing would remove sprays.  I don't wash anything i peel, like onions, carrots, etc.  But potatoes are covered in dirt and the dirt gets on the peeled part so i rinse them.  I use my salad spinner for salad greens, and also stuff like spinach if there isn;t too much of it, because you can swish it around in the water and then lift it out of the bowl using the straining basket, and the dirt stays in the pot.  Other vegetables need a huge pot to wash.  

Grapes are hard because theyl;re usually heavily sprayed but are impossible to rub.  I also put in the salad spinner, fill with water, shake around with my hands, so at least they rub against each other, and change the water a couple of times. 

I slit open fennel and open the fanlike sections, because there is often snail droppings in  there, and snail droppings carry tapeworm.  I slice the green of leeks to get at the sand that lodges there. 

I'm not too fussy about anything that's cooked, unless i suspect it's been sprayed. 

For most veggies, I use my own wash which consists of ginger (antiseptic), lemon juice (to cut through waxes and oils), glycerine (suspension base) and a sapronin extract (surfactant). 

 For leafy veggies, I just dip and rinse well.
 
 For root veggies and fruit with thick rinds, I let soak for about 3 to 5 minutes and rinse well.
 
 For thin skinned fruit such as berries, grapes, apples, pears, etc. I soak for only 2 minutes and rinse well. 

 I wash leeks by first slicing down the length of the leek, stopping short of the crown. rinse under running water with the top facing downward into the sink.  I cut the leek up accordingly and take the cut up pieces and put them into a cold or icy water bath and let them float for a few minutes.  the cut pieces float and any sand or grit will sink to the bottom. 

My mom always told me to soak the vegetables in a basin of water with a pinch of salt for 5 mins.  This gets rid of the chemicals in their skin. 

Good old fashion dish soap , just like we do the dishes:Wash. & Scrub, Rince well ,Air dry..for all of the above,,,,,we wash our dishes in it so if we eat off of it I beleive we can eat it too,