How to Clean Strawberries Effectively

Is there anything more quintessentially summer than a basket of fresh-picked strawberries? After grabbing a box of the ruby red fruit from the store, you want to make sure your strawberries are properly cleaned before taking a bite. Washing strawberries ensures you and your family don't consume any unnecessary grime, bugs, or chemicals (because no one wants a contaminated strawberry shortcake). Here are some quick ways to clean your strawberries using vinegar, baking soda, or salt before eating.

Tips Before Cleaning Strawberries

Before you start washing your berries, there are a few things to keep in mind to make sure they don't get moldy or spoiled before you can eat them.

• Don't wash your strawberries until you're ready to cook with or eat them. Strawberries have a sponge-like quality that causes them to suck up as much moisture as possible. If you wash your berries in advance and then store them, they will spoil much more quickly.
• Wash your hands before handling any fruit. This isn't only specific to strawberries! Make sure your hands are clean before touching food of any kind to ensure you don't transfer germs onto the food you're going to eat.
• Toss any moldy or bruised berries. You won't want to eat these, as they can make you sick. Plus, leaving moldy berries in the container may cause more mold to grow on the good ones.
• Skip the produce wash. According to the FDA, "Washing fruits and vegetables with soap, detergent, or commercial produce wash is not recommended."

How to Wash Strawberries With Water

If you are buying organic (and pesticide-free) berries from a farmer's market or another local source, you can rinse them in cool water before laying them out on a dish towel or paper towel to dry. Then, you're ready to slice, bake, or pop into your mouth.

If your fresh local strawberries seem dirty, you can also use the vinegar method below to remove excess grime. However, don't use a produce brush because that could damage the fragile exterior or crush the berry entirely.

• Step 1: Place fresh strawberries in a colander and rinse with cold running water for several seconds. Use clean hands to rotate the berries inside the bowl, so each strawberry gets rinsed.
• Step 2: Turn off the water, then shake the colander to remove any excess liquid. Place the strawberries on a clean cloth and pat dry. They are now ready to be eaten.

How to Clean Strawberries With Vinegar

If you're buying strawberries from the grocery store, and especially if they've been grown conventionally using pesticides, you will want to take a few more steps before consumption. Strawberries are one of the most highly sprayed conventional crops out there. Using a mix of vinegar and water can help gently clean strawberries that may have been exposed to pesticides and other chemicals.

Additionally, the journey from big farm to grocery store shelf is a long one, and your berries have been handled by many different people and exposed to different conditions. Needless to say, it's worth a few extra moments to make sure your fruit is clean as can be.

• Step 1: Fill a large bowl with four parts water to one part white vinegar.
• Step 2: Place the berries in a colander that fits inside the larger bowl. Drop the colander slowly into the bowl, and make sure the berries are completely submerged with the vinegar wash.
• Step 3: Soak for approximately 20 minutes (any longer can create a soggy berry and any shorter isn't as effective).
• Step 4: Lift the colander and rinse the fruit thoroughly under cool water. Pat the fruit dry with a clean cloth or paper towels. Don't worry, there won't be a hint of vinegar left behind if you rinse well—just the sweet and perfectly tangy taste of summertime.

How to Clean Strawberries With Salt

Salt water is an effective way to remove bugs from strawberries (gross, we know). Just grab a bowl and whatever salt you have in your pantry and follow these steps:

• Step 1: Add about a tablespoon of salt to a bowl of warm water and let it dissolve.
• Step 2: Place the strawberries in the salt water and let soak for about five minutes.
• Step 3: Rinse the berries clean and they're ready to eat.

How to Clean Strawberries With Baking Soda

If you have baking soda on-hand in your pantry, this is an effective ingredient to clean your fruit. Simply mix with water to remove pesticides, dirt, and insects.

• Step 1: Mix one teaspoon of baking soda with four cups of water and stir until dissolved.
• Step 2: Add the strawberries to the mixture and toss them with clean hands.
• Step 3: Let the strawberries soak in the mixture for 10 to 15 minutes.
• Step 4: Rinse the berries clean and then they're ready to eat.

Why Is It Important to Clean Strawberries?

Strawberries can easily absorb pesticides and are ranked number one on EWG's Dirty Dozen, a list of produce with the highest pesticide contamination. Cleaning strawberries properly can keep you and your family from getting sick by ingesting these toxic chemicals. Consider purchasing organic strawberries at the store or your local farmer's market (or growing your own strawberry plant) to avoid pesticide contamination.

How to Store Strawberries After Washing

There are several different ways to store strawberries, including:

• Put them in an airtight glass container like a food storage container or mason jar.
• Place unwashed strawberries on top of a paper towel in a food storage container and place in the refrigerator.
• Rinse the strawberries with vinegar, pat them dry, and place on a clean paper towel in a glass container.
• Freeze the strawberries in the freezer.