To disinfect or not to disinfect
Should you disinfect vegetables in Mexico as a matter of course? I must admit I’m not nearly so big on it as I used to be.
When we first moved to tropical Yucatan, I faithfully disinfected anything that was not going to be cooked, i.e. salad stuff. I used iodine (yodo) until I got a horrified look from the lady in the farmacia when I revealed what I wanted it for, and then moved on to the new silver-based, special purpose Microdyn, which is supposedly nontoxic. It can also be used to purify drinking water. I have no idea how effective it is, but it seems to have become very popular and appears to be marketed to restaurants in giant-sized jugs at Sam’s and Costco.
I do think in the tropics disinfecting is probably important. Nasty bugs of all descriptions flourish in those climes, and they could well be lurking in your vegetables. Better to be safe.
After moving to Sonora, however, I had an epiphany of sorts while getting ready to disinfect a tomato one night. This tomato, it occurred to me, was identical in provenance to countless tomatoes we’d consumed in Tucson for years and years, with never a thought of disinfecting them. Probably 90% of the tomatoes sold in Tucson supermarkets come from Mexico. Do they somehow lose their Mexican cooties by virtue of crossing the border? I think not.
I haven’t disinfected a tomato since.
Ironically, I have been disinfecting our homegrown lettuce because it’s grown in compost — just in case. And I still disinfect supermarket lettuce. I never disinfect cabbage, though, just remove the outer leaves. I doubt millions of taco-vendors do, so why should I?
Another factor to weigh is how trustworthy is the water in which you wash the vegetables. (The Microdyn bottle makes a big point of the fact that you don’t have to rinse off the Microdyn with possibly bad water after disinfecting.) As we’ve had no problems in more than four years brushing our teeth with Mexican tap water, I don’t worry about it.
The truth is, many of the health hazards Mexico is so famous for are really not much of an issue anymore. The Mexican government has done a bang-up job of getting potable water to the people, including in the most remote and tiny villages (even though many still decline to drink it), and much of the food (sadly) is grown by agribiz. Common sense, as usual, seems the best approach.