It's always a good idea to wash any vegetable before you eat it, even if you plan to cook it thoroughly. Washing helps get rid of not only germs, but also other possible contaminants, like dirt and pesticides.
Wash the broccoli thoroughly to start. Avoid soaking the broccoli — simply put it under running water. Use a clean tea towel to pat the vegetable dry afterwards. Cut the leaves from the broccoli and set aside.
Begin by placing the head of broccoli upside down on a cutting board. Cut off each of the florets where they meet the stalk. Slice the large florets into smaller pieces by slicing through the stems. Square the stalk by slicing off the tough outer layer of the stalk, removing about ⅛ of an inch on each side.
Sometimes dirty produce can result in foodborne sickness. We have seen recent outbreaks of veggies with E. coli, Salmonella, and more,” Janette Nesheiwat, MD, says. “This can result in nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, stomach cramps, and fever, along with dehydration.”
Sometimes, raw fruits and vegetables contain harmful germs that can make you and your family sick, such as Salmonella, E. coli, and Listeria. The safest produce to eat is cooked; the next safest is washed. Wash fruits and vegetables under running water—even if you do not plan to eat the peel.
A: No, you do not need to wash ready-to-eat produce. In fact, rewashing can increase your risk of getting sick because your produce may become contaminated with bacteria from your sink, countertop, cutting boards or other kitchen surfaces.
Afraid so – although boiling or steaming your veg will kill off any bacteria, there's still the problem of pesticides, which can wash off the vegetables and hang around in the water while cooking. Thorough washing and drying with clean kitchen paper will help remove any pesticide traces.
For yard long beans, pesticide residues were reduced by 38–100% after boiling, 27–28% after blanching, and 35–63% after stir-frying. Therefore, cooking vegetables are proven to protect consumers from ingesting pesticide residues.
Run cool or cold water over the broccoli and fill the bowl to the top. Sprinkle with some salt over the entire bowl. This will help clean out any debris, sand, or dirt left inside the florets that are not visible. Then, drain in a colander.
Rinse Broccoli and Cauliflower
The free-form, tightly-packed shapes of broccoli, romanesco and the like make them difficult to clean. Start by breaking down the vegetables into smaller florets and rinse them in a bowl of cold water. Repeat as needed until no dirt settles at the bottom of the bowl.
Immediatley before cooking, soak your broccoli, head down, in cold, salted water (1 tsp salt to 8 cups water) for 5 minutes. Any critters will float to the top where you can rescue them or allow them to suffer a salty death.
Broccoli and Cauliflower
Get your cruciferous veggies squeaky clean by filling a sink with cold water and then soaking them for a few minutes. Then, gently lift them out of the water, place in a colander and rinse again under a stream of more cold water.
To get rid of any bugs hiding in the broccoli florets, start by filling your sink with cold water. Add in 1/4 cup of salt and 2 tbsp of vinegar. Let sit for 20 minutes and rinse the broccoli. During this process, the broccoli must be completely submerged.
To draw the “broccoli worms” out of the broccoli trees, you need to soak it in a sink of cold water to which you've added 1/4 cup of salt and 2 tbsp of vinegar. You will need to keep the broccoli heads submerged in the water for at least 20 minutes. Weighing them down with a plate to keep them underwater can help.
All those spaces between the florets make great hiding holes for insect critters, and if you don't want to eat them, you need to wash them out. Use warm, not cold or hot water, with a little white vinegar added, and soak the broccoli until the insects float to the top. Don't soak for any longer than 15 minutes.
We should not wash the fruits and vegetables after cutting, because the minerals and protein in the fruits and vegetables will also be washed away.
Boiling leaches out the vegetable's water-soluble vitamins in these vegetables, such as vitamin C and folate, as well as many of the glucosinolate compounds, which are water-soluble, too.
Forgo the plastic bag and loosely wrap your broccoli in a damp paper towel before storing it in the refrigerator. This provides a healthy and moist (but breathable) environment for your broccoli. Make sure not to wash the broccoli beforehand, as too much moisture might encourage mold growth.
Keep it in a loosely wrapped or perforated plastic bag so it will still get some air circulation. Do not wash your broccoli before storing — the excess moisture may encourage mold growth. Wait until right before you eat broccoli to wash it. Use within 3 to 5 days.
In a white vinegar solution: If you know your broccoli heads have aphids or cabbage worms, you can kill them with a solution that is ten percent white vinegar and ninety percent water.
Produce with bumpy, uneven surfaces, such as cauliflower and broccoli, should be soaked 1 to 2 minutes in cold water (with outer leaves already removed) to remove contaminants from the nooks and crannies. Then rinsed again. Use a clean cloth or paper towel to dry the produce before using it.
First, check the color of the florets. They should be a bright, uniform green. If they have any yellow or brown spots, that's a sign your broccoli is starting to spoil. If you notice fuzzy white or black patches growing on the florets or the stem, that tells you that mold is starting to form, and it's time to toss it.
To start with, raw meat may be contaminated with spores of certain pathogenic bacteria (e.g. Clostridium perfringens) and spores are not readily destroyed by normal cooking temperature.
Leafy greens, broccoli, cucumbers, and strawberries possibly linked to E. coli Outbreak by CDC and FDA | Food Poison Journal.