We wash all of our produce, organic or not! And if you have been reading our site for a while, you will know that we buy a lot of conventional and organic produce each week, so we have a lot to clean 🙂
With that, we wanted to share a natural and super easy Homemade Fruit and Veggie Wash that will save you loads of money over the commercial ones sold in the grocery stores and be just as effective in cleaning your fruits and veggies!
This recipe was actually shared by Dr. Oz on the the DoctorOz.com site! I love this recipe and I love that my produce seems to be cleaner and better to eat because of it! I also love the very frugal price tag on this cleaner!
I would get suckered in to buying the commercial ones, but it is really unnecessary with just a few household staples!
We also wanted to share this recipe as we continue with Building Better Breakfasts for Less month as fruits and veggies are an important part! So this is one key to the puzzle for the less part of breakfast!
Note: If you desire to print this recipe or are not reading this on our site please click here for a nicely formatted and printable recipe!
| Homemade Natural Fruit and Veggie Wash | Print |
- 1 cup water
- 1 cup distilled white vinegar
- 1 tbsp baking soda
- ½ of a lemon or 1 TBSP of Lemon Juice
- Combine all ingredients in a large bowl in the order listed above. Please note, there will be a reaction between the vinegar and baking soda, so you need to have a large enough bowl for the mixture to at least double in size before the reaction calms back down.
- Transfer to a spray bottle with a pump by pouring the mixture from the bowl into a funnel. Please note, the reaction will start again and so pour it in slowly. The slower that you pour it in, the milder the reaction.
- Once made, spray mixture on produce and let sit for 5 minutes. Scrub and rinse clean!
Check out https://thethriftycouple.com/category/homemade-products for more Homemade Natural Recipe ideas!
Don’t forget to check out our growing list of Building Better Breakfasts for Less page HERE.
If you are looking for spray bottles for your own homemade cleaners and purposes, you can get them at an grocery or home-improvement store. You can also pick up a 3 pk of 24 oz. bottles on Amazon and they will ship free with Amazon Prime or a $25 or more order.
Lynda Seneff
Great recipe for cleaning fruit and veggies! Thank you!
Lori Duncan
Can you make this wash up ahead of time and just keep it in a bottle ready to use whenever?
Cassie
Hi Lori – absolutely! That is exactly what I do. Each batch lasts us a few weeks, but it will last a very long time. We only make a full bottle once every few weeks.
Michelle
Do you refrigerate the fruit wash over the course of those few weeks?
Cassie
You could if you wanted, but I don’t find changes in a short time. But long term would probably be a good idea. 🙂
Lori
I haven’t added lemon juice and baking soda. But every week when I get home with my produce, I fill up the sink with water and vinegar and soak everything for a bit before letting it air dry and putting it away.
I’ll have to add the other ingredients.
Heather E
You don’t taste the vinegar because you are mostly neutralizing it with an acid-base reaction. It’s kind’ve a waste to use baking soda AND vinegar in a recipe since the sodium acetate it produces does not have any more cleansing power than table salt.
JJ
The vinegar will kill a lot of microbes, flu germs and viruses…..so I’d keep it in the recipe. It doesn’t kill everything, but it is a great defense against germs.
Violet
Don’t the vinegar & baking soda neutralize each other?
Michelle
Yes they absolutely do lol