What’s the honest-to-goodness best way to wash your produce? Use water and white vinegar. A few squirts on your fruits and veggies gets rid of all the nasties (like pesticide residue) that you don’t want.

If you’re like me you probably already have a bottle of white vinegar in your cabinet (and no idea of how it got there), now you have a use for it. A diluted vinegar rinse kills 98% of bacteria on produce - researchers found it works even better than a scrub brush. Water and vinegar rinses cost just pennies; a pre-made rinse will run you around $4 and up. Buying plastic bottles of produce wash means having to recycle them too (not to mention the energy and materials needed to make and ship them in the first place) - you’ll still need to buy bottles of vinegar, but you’ll buy fewer of them.

Give it a try! Mix 3 parts water to 1 part white vinegar in a spray bottle (if you’ve already got a bottle of the premade stuff, use it up and reuse the sprayer). Rinse with water after you…