Should you sanitise your strawberries? Experts on the right way to wash fruit and vegetables

With soft fruit like strawberries, washing it when you’re not about to eat them is ‘the worst possible thing for shelf life’, according to fruit farm operator Rebecca Scurr. Photograph: Carol Yepes/Getty Images

You know the cost-of-living crisis is biting when videos of influencers unpacking their grocery “hauls” are viral on TikTok. Chewing through millions of views, fruit and vegetables are aesthetically plopped into a sink filled with water, piece by piece. “Sanitising” products are then added, ranging from the fizz of baking soda and vinegar to specialised vegetable soaps (“Amazon link in my bio!”). There are even expensive electronic purifiers, which shake, shimmy and bubble away in the basin, supposedly removing any nasties.

But is ASMR deep-cleaning your fresh produce really necessary? And is it all too late for those of us who can barely remember to rinse our pears?