Check your fruit bowl, folks-there has been a HUGE RECALL of fruits including peaches, plums, nectarines and pluots — apricot-plum hybrids — packaged between June 1 through July 12 by Wawona Packing Co. due to potential contamination with LISTERIA MONOCYTOGENES (view the actual recall notice here). This is a voluntary recall, so far there have been no reported illnesses. Some of the stores that received recalled fruit were Costco, BJ’s, Kroger, Trader Joe’s, Walmart and possibly others. If you have any of the recalled fruit throw it out or contact the store of purchase, you may be entitled to a refund.
I heard about the recall on the news and was also alerted to the recall on my receipt from my last trip to Kroger (a very useful by-product of having the Kroger Plus Card tracking program)
Even if there is no recall its always a good idea to wash your fruit.
Simple fruit and vegetable wash recipe;
3 parts water to 1 part distilled vinegar
So 3 cups of water to 1 cup of vinegar or 6 cups of water to 2 cups of vinegar. I suggest using a large bowl to wash your fruit instead of your sink so you can use the proper measurement of water to vinegar. A sink is so large that you may not get the proper water to vinegar ratio to be effective.
Agitate the fruit in the vinegar and water solution (a little friction helps get the fruit clean) rinse and dry the fruit. Even fruit that gets peeled or cut should be washed before eating. If you cut an unwashed cantaloupe, for example, your knife can drag bacteria from the skin to the interior of the fruit. For large fruit you may want to put the vegetable wash in a spray bottle.
