The FDA highly recommends that you wash your avocados. A sampling program that was two years in the making found that avocado sometimes has a hitchhiker on its skin.
The FDA collected and tested avocados between 2014-2016 and found that the skin sometimes carried traces of Salmonella and Listeria. There was less than a 1percent positive result for Salmonella on the skin, however, if you cut into the avocado, you can spread the microorganisms into the flesh. Once that happens you’re only a bite away from ingesting it.
There was over 17-percent incidence rate of Listeria on the skin of the avocados, but less than a 1/4% of the fruit was affected with the pathogen inside. Listeria doesn’t typically make healthy adults sick but it puts the more fragile among us at risk, such as the elderly, children, women who are pregnant, and anyone else with a weak immune system.
So wash your avocados before you cut into them. It’s a simple way to protect your help and it’s not going to affect the fruit or how it tastes, but it could save you from being very, very ill.
