Yes! Blueberries (as well as other types of fruits and berries) need to be washed to rid them of bacteria, dirt, small bugs and pesticides. Normally, we would advise not to wash berries until you're ready to eat them, to avoid the extra moisture that causes spoilage.
Just remember to rinse the berries before using them. Commercially frozen blueberries have been washed—use them directly from the bag.
It might seem counterintuitive to wash your berries before you're ready to eat them. One of the cardinal rules of keeping berries mold-free is to leave them unwashed until the moment before consumption.
Even organic berries should be washed before eating; while there may not be chemicals to rinse off, there's still dirt and other grime to be cleaned off before you use the berries for anything.
Gently wash the berries by setting the faucet on a cool, low temperature and running water over them. Shake the colander or swish the water with your hand to remove residual dirt or pesticide residue.
To try this editor-approved strategy, combine 1 part white vinegar to 4 parts water (for example, ¼ cup vinegar plus 1 cup water) in a pitcher or bowl, then soak the berries in the vinegar water for about 5 minutes. After that, rinse thoroughly with plain water.
Do You Need To Wash Blueberries? This is something a lot of people wonder, especially if you're buying organically grown blueberries. Even if you do buy organically grown blueberries, you still need to clean your berries really well before eating them.
Known as the “Dirty Dozen,” these foods tested positive for a whopping 210 pesticides. Blueberries are the latest fruit to make it onto the list. “Some of the USDA's tests show traces of pesticides long since banned by the Environmental Protection Agency,” the report said, according to CNN.
As a rule of thumb, washing with water reduces dirt, germs, and pesticide residues remaining on fresh fruit and vegetable surfaces. Washing and rubbing produce under running water is better than dunking it. Wash fruits and vegetables from the farmers' market, your home garden, and the grocery store.
To help prevent food poisoning, do not eat unwashed fresh produce. Wash or scrub fruits and vegetables under running water—even if you do not plan to eat the peel. Germs on the peel or skin can get inside fruits and vegetables when you cut them.
Clean fruits and vegetables before eating, cutting, or cooking, unless the package says the contents have been washed. Wash or scrub fruits and vegetables under running water—even if you do not plan to eat the peel. Germs on the peel or skin can get inside fruits and vegetables when you cut them.
You can leave blueberries at room temperature if you plan to eat them in the next day or so, but after that you should transfer them to the fridge—they can stay there for five to 10 days. Of course, you can freeze them if you want to keep them longer than that. Frozen blueberries will last about six months.
Ideally, freeze your blueberries as they are and wait to rinse them when you take them out of the freezer. If you do prefer to rinse the blueberries first, be sure to dry well with paper towels, then transfer them to freezer containers or resealable plastic bags for freezing.
Putting washed fruit in the fridge adds excess moisture, which speeds up fruit's decay. And decay means throwing it in the garbage, which is a waste of money and food. Instead, store properly dried fruit in the fridge and wash it when you're ready to eat.
Remember, rinse and dry those frozen berries before you use them; it DOES make a difference. Enjoy! Note: To those of you below wondering about losing flavor and nutrients when you rinse the berries, it's true, you probably lose a little bit of the berries' nutrition.
Tests of 765 non-organic blueberry samples collected in 2020 and 2021 found more than 90 percent had pesticide residues, up from 81 percent with detectable residues in 2014.
A Vinegary Solution to a Dirty Problem
Before you rinse the blueberries, rinse them in a 10-percent vinegar solution. Mix 1 part white distilled vinegar and 3 parts water in a food-grade container or bowl; you need about 3 cups of water and 1 cup of vinegar for 1/2 pound of blueberries.
The berries should be plump and firm. Avoid reddish berries as they are not yet ripe. Containers with berry stains indicated bruised or over ripe fruit. Avoid those too.
EWG says people should buy organically grown items from the Dirty Dozen: strawberries; spinach; kale, collard and mustard greens; peaches; pears; nectarines; apples; grapes, bell and hot peppers; cherries; blueberries; and green beans.
Color: Organic cultivated blueberries have white, green, or light purple flesh inside. On the contrary, wild blueberries have dark purple or blue color flesh.
Cleaning blueberries before you eat them is an important way to remove mold and bacteria as well as pesticides. The easiest way to wash them off is by rinsing them under a gentle stream of cold water, although you can use vinegar for extra cleaning power.
There are two main risks of eating unwashed fruits and vegetables: bacterial contamination and pesticides. In recent years, many outbreaks of foodborne illness have come from contaminated cantaloupe, spinach, tomatoes, and lettuce.
Berries have thin skins and are full of moisture, making them very susceptible to mold. Fortunately, common household vinegar is quite effective at killing the mold spores and bacteria that spoil fruit. 1 By washing berries in a mixture of white vinegar and water, you can make your berries last longer in the fridge.