I was washing lettuce for the shop today and my boss comes up to the wash sink and puts a capful of bleach in the water with the lettuce and says it helps keep the lettuce fresh longer. Is that a thing or is my boss poisoning people?
by LadyMcMustard
46 Comments
This is a troll, right?
weird, we normally do a paprika & 2% milk bath
I am calling the police
What the fuck. I just got up.
A lot of kosher Kitchens (Rabbi’s) Wash lettuce with bleach
Normally we just provide a shot of bleach with our salads to be sure
Mar-a-Lago kitchen?
[https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2015/crime-in-the-u.s.-2015/resource-pages/contact-us/contact-us/](https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2015/crime-in-the-u.s.-2015/resource-pages/contact-us/contact-us/)
Is it going to hurt anyone? Probably not, as long as it was literally just a cap full.
Is it smart, practical or common? No fucking way.
That being said, using bleach to sanitize water is a widely accepted emergency survival technique. Still dumb as hell to do it unnecessarily tho
We used to sanitize with a low % bleach solution, then rinse with freshwater, our iceberg lettuce at a&w
I’ve taken multiple food safety classes, most recently for making cold-pressed juices (food production, not for serving/restaurants), and you can indeed sanitize produce with bleach. It should be measured though, and the dilution should be tested before using it to make sure there is enough bleach to sanitize but not enough to harm humans.
I don’t like it, and I’m not advocating for it, just pointing out that this is a food safety protocol that is pretty widely accepted.
Edited to include this link for reference: https://ucfoodsafety.ucdavis.edu/sites/g/files/dgvnsk7366/files/inline-files/26437.pdf
Are you perhaps catering for a convention with a lot of insurance CEOs attending? Because if you are, then yes bleach is in fact a lettuce sanitizer. Carry on, chefs.
To my understanding (not in the US so check your local regulations), bleach in a MEASURED ratio is acceptable for things like cleaning produce and to serve as sanitizer solution during service.
But again, this should be measured not just chuck a fkn capful in a sink of water and hope for the best.
It’s a thing. [Here’s a product](https://rapidclean.com.au/product/ecolab-sureshot-fruit-vegetable/) that is specially made for the job, but notice that the description states that it’s chlorine based – aka bleach.
used to be pretty standard practice (in the states, at least). i’m in my 40s and when i started cooking at 15 i worked at a few places that did this.
It seems like it’s still a toss up in this community! 😩 looks like most of you think it’s totally insane but then someone chimes in and goes well actually that’s a thing.
Is it too much to core your lettuce?
Bleaching food is not only perfectly safe, it’s a standard practice, especially with products that have hard to reach places like leafy greens where bacteria and pathogens can harbor.
That being said, it needs to be done the right way, using bleach formulations that are intended for use with food (not laundry bleach) and according to instructions. A very dilute bleach concentration can be incredibly effective against bacteria and also kills off things like molds that can survive other sanitizers while being safe for humans.
I’ve had an inspector try to ding me for having bleach in my shops, but after explaining things to them, they were fine.
If you’re using bleach or thinking about it, do some research and do it right
This is a normal practice. Proper dilution must be used. We learned this in culinary school. One sink with the heavily diluted solution then one sink with fresh cold water.
Here’s a link to the federal government of Canada talking about proper ppm when using this method.
https://inspection.canada.ca/en/preventive-controls/fresh-fruits-vegetables/chlorinated-wash-water
Frankly I’m surprised at all the comments and the lack of knowledge.
Is he trying to bleach the brown out of that lettuce?
The european union allows for up to 80 ppm of chlorine in water to santitize vegetables, as long as it is rinced afterwards.
I believe it goes up to 250 ppm in some states of the US but that is just hearsay, so a capful of bleach in a full sink is absolutely fine.
Where I work we use a diluted solution of food grade chlorine but we were always told that food safe bleach is fine too.
I have no clue whether it helps the lettuce stay fresh but it 100% helps reduce the amount of bacteria that can grow on it.
I am just going to pretend I never read this post
My boss prefers lemon juice
A trace amount isn’t harmful, the tap water you were already washing with is chlorinated. Any pool you’ve ever been in has more chlorine in it. Also chlorine evaporates out of water relatively rapidly.
In the 1970s I worked in a restaurant in the Hamptons on Long Island. Older lettuce would go into a sink with cold water and something the owner called “Lettuce White.” Presto chango, crispy delicious lettuce emerged. I’ve wondered about that for years.
There are products specialized for produce….Microdyn, Bacdyn, Fit, Ecolab, Norwex, etc.
Also, a 1/4 vinegar/water solution. Far safer than bleach.
Here we go the other side of the (ph) spectrum and use diluted vinegar bath to well clean lettuce
Is this why lettuce always tastes like shit?
yes (at least when I was a kid my mom did it) but literally like a drop of bleach diluted in a bunch of water. That is when lettuce came with live guests and lots of soil (I am from Europe).
There’s specialized bleach for this, y’all. OP, is it *FOOD SAFE BLEACH* or *BATHROOM CLEANER BLEACH*?
This is *important information*
Vinegar is better
the FDA in my country advises the population/restaurants to always use bleach to wash produce. they say it’s the most effective way to actually kill bacteria. vinegar, lemon etc don’t kill bacteria. never heard someone died from it.
Bleach breaks down fairly quickly in water. Assuming you’re prepping these for later use then the capful of bleach will likely be broken down and nontoxic long before y’all use the veggies.
1 Tbsp of unscented, uncolored bleach per gallon of water is a food safe sanitizer. It won’t do anything about existing toxins but it kills bacteria. See USDA sanitizing guidelines. There is some timing for evaporation but it isn’t long.
This is very common in tropical countries and is supported by WHO.
That’s a real thing, lettuce has all those nooks and crannies to hold bacteria. Remember, there’s bleach in your drinking water, it’s just very diluted.. Usually you rinse the bleachwater off the lettuce before serving. Foodborne illness is rampant right now, so it’s good looking out on your boss’ part.
Fast food places used to rinse the potatoes with bleach during processing to keep them white. Not sure if they still do. Up to a certain dilution is definitely accepted practice
It can be used in place of a veggie wash but you then wash it in copious amounts of water.
In a measured dosis it should be safe, given that you wash them after. In SouthAmerica we had a big cholera break in the early 90s and pretty much every household washed their lettuce with chlorine-based bleach. left them for a few min and then thoroughly rinse.
As someone that works in a place that doesn’t even rinse produce, I think I’d be better with the bleach than the risk of ecoli
Maybe buy your lettuce from a reputable grower with good agricultural practice and there won’t be a need to “sanitise” it.
one time i dropped a head of lettuce on the floor during prep & threw it out. my boss found it and took it out of the trash and put it on top of all the other heads of lettuce and said it was fine.
i threw them all out.
One of my culinary Arts instructors said it’s super prevalent in hotels and they would do it all the time back in the day.
It’s fine. At the appropriate dilution the bleach is significantly less harmful to you than the bacteria that could be growing on the lettuce. The CDC recommends 0.5 teaspoons per gallon of water, which is 0.065%. That is almost untraceable.
That lettuce looks shot anyway lol
It’s a low cost disinfectant… I can taste it in a lot of fast food.
When “night soil” is possible or when an organic farmer offers me an extremely dirty lettuce bundle I do it just help my consciousness. You never want a ecoli outbreak to come back to you.