When it comes to washing veggies, most of us rely on good ol’ water. Others use vinegar or soap, but are these techniques more effective? The folks at Cook’s Illustrated magazine wanted to know and decided to put it all to the test.

In their test, they washed fruit with one of the following solutions:

1. Antibacterial soap (not recommended as food safety experts think soap isn’t something you should eat)
2. One part vinegar and three parts water
3. Scrubbing with a brush
4. Plain water

Once they had washed their fruit, they then took a sterile cotton swab and rubbed it on the outside of the fruit. The grime collected on the swabs was then placed into Petri dishes and sat at 80F for several days.

Want to know what their results were? Find out, just

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