Close
Photo:
Getty Images / Allrecipes
There are a lot of rules when it comes to cleaning your food. So many that it can become impossible to know exactly which ingredients you’re supposed to wash and how you’re supposed to do it correctly. That’s why we’re here to answer the food questions that you may have not thought about until you find yourself peeling an onion and thinking, should I be washing this?
Onions are one of the most used ingredients in the kitchen, due to their versatility and rich flavor. Think soups, stir-fries, pasta, and even hamburgers. No matter if you’re whipping up French onion dip from scratch or garnishing roasted potatoes with onions there’s one thing that we know for sure—you should be washing them before cooking.
Why You Should Wash Onions
Blaine Moats/Meredith
Like many home cooks, you’ve likely skipped washing your onions a time or two—or maybe you’ve never washed them at all. However, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommends always washing produce to reduce bacteria and rid of any excess dirt (they do grow underground, after all).
Most experts agree that you should wash the onions entirely—onion skin and all. If not, "you can dirty your cutting board, hands, and knife, possibly drawing microbes onto the parts you will eat when you begin slicing and dicing,” says Vanessa Coffman, Alliance Director at Stop Foodborne Illness. With clean hands, wash the outer part of the onion with cool running water and “gently scrub the onion skin with your hands or a vegetable brush” before cutting.
That said, it's not the end of the world if you decide to peel the onion skin and only rinse the interior. Why? According to Trista Best, a registered dietician at the Candida Diet, “The outer layer naturally protects the inside edible part of the onion." Should you choose to opt out of rinsing the protective outer layer, then remove it over a garbage can, avoid any potential cooking surfaces, and wash your hands and knife thoroughly.
Make sure to "rinse the [inner portion of the] onion under running water and dry," adds Best. Pat the vegetable dry with a clean cloth towel or a fresh paper towel. From there you can dice, slice, and chop the onion however you’d like and wash as needed.
Per the FDA, cooking onions at a high temperature will naturally kill off harmful bacteria and reduce the risk of illness. If onions are going to be served raw in dishes like salads and other tasty meals, your best bet is to wash the onions. No one likes getting sick from food, after all.
Was this page helpful?
Thanks for your feedback!
Tell us why!
Other
Submit
