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Reputation: 593

How can I prevent e.coli in my home grown sprouts?

I love growing my own sprouts at home. I grow lentil, alfalfa, mung bean and broccoli. I've never had a problem with e. coli yet. Due to the recent scare however should be washing my seeds with anything? A packet i bought suggested a bleach wash. Is there any more natural option?

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  • Qlandav2ex_small
    Reputation: 4209

    The sources of E. coli would be from the blood or juices of uncooked meat. As long as you are obtaining fresh seeds and beans and soaking them in fresh water and not exposing them to unclean vessels you have kept raw meat in you have nothing to worry about.

    If you want to control for any stray mold or fungus that can grow on damp sprouts you can always rinse them in some apple cider vinegar before eating them (preferably raw unfiltered organic with the 'mother'). That will also give some extra great taste to your salad or other preparation.

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  • Meansceneprod-gothgirl7872_small
    Reputation: 694

    Whoa!!!! there! Russ and Danger and Geni...
    I don't want to scare you Finger Games, but I do feel that someone here should mention that yes, sprouts can be dangerous.

    I'm assuming that you're growing your sprouts in jars, not the ground, and as Danger and Geni have mentioned that you're not wiping shit on them.
    But! Sprouts and foodborne pathogens require nearly identical growing conditions- moisture, room temp, oh yeah and pathogens need something to eat too, something with carbohydrates, amino acids, and glucose, something like sprouts perhaps?

    So lets talk about E.coli. Most of them aren't harmful, lots are beneficial, but know this: E.coli is freakin' everywhere humans are. E.coli are like the stars in the sky, if the stars were constantly mutating and sometimes into variations that killed you, but mostly were your lil' buddies that helped you digest things and made up a significant portion of your body weight.
    E.coli. Literally. Everywhere.

    Anyway, moving on to E.coli O157:H7- that's the one you're worried about (mostly). It will make you hella sick but it's not going to magically show up on your sprouts, it has to get there, so how does it get there?
    First, it likes to live in poop, cow poop and human poop. This is why we wash our hands after making a #2. Commercial beef is covered in a fine layer of poop, which is why I can't sell it to you raw and ready to eat.
    Second, have you noticed that poop is everywhere? It is, get a UV light if you don't believe me (DO NOT GET A UV LIGHT) we're filthy, and if you don't have a strong immune system you're going to die really quick. Sorry.

    So at this point you're probably like 'damn Goth Jenny, you're saying that the world is covered in E.coli and shit so how am I ever going to eat anything ever again let alone grow sprouts?'

    1. Forget all this, if you've been growing sprouts and you're not dead you're probably doing it right.

    2. Wash your hands.

    3. Sterilize your jars and strainer lids, you can boil them or use bleach, hydrogen peroxide, or quants.

    4. Rinse your seeds before you start, rinse them daily while growing.

    5. If you're worried and want to sterilize the seeds or sprouts with something use a hydrogen peroxide solution, not bleach.

    Seriously, don't worry. The real danger of sprouts comes with large-scale production, as long as you're kind of smart about it you'll be fine.

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  • Labcoat_small
    Reputation: 733

    Unless you have cows roaming through your sprout plots or you add raw manure just before harvesting or you send your sprouts to an unsanitary factory for packaging YOU WILL BE FINE.

    E.coli is everywhere. Dangerous E.coli is not. It is, in fact fairly rare and only is a concern when raw sewage interacts with your food. If you do use crude fertilizers at home, don't harvest for a week or two after adding it to your garden. Sunlight and natural soil bacteria will kill/out-compete the bad microorganisms.

    Don't bleach your produce. You don't have to do anything more than wash home grown vegetables. I suggest short warm/hot rinse (helps remove bacteria) followed immediately by a cold rinse to keep everything crisp.

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