Bleach to “sanitize” lettuce? Is that a thing or is my boss poisoning people?
Wednesday, 12 Mar 2025
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weird, we normally do a paprika & 2% milk bath
To my understanding (not in the US so check your local regulations), bleach in a MEASURED ratio is acceptable for things like cleaning produce and to serve as sanitizer solution during service.
But again, this should be measured not just chuck a fkn capful in a sink of water and hope for the best.
I’ve taken multiple food safety classes, most recently for making cold-pressed juices (food production, not for serving/restaurants), and you can indeed sanitize produce with bleach. It should be measured though, and the dilution should be tested before using it to make sure there is enough bleach to sanitize but not enough to harm humans.
I don’t like it, and I’m not advocating for it, just pointing out that this is a food safety protocol that is pretty widely accepted.
Edited to include this link for reference: https://ucfoodsafety.ucdavis.edu/sites/g/files/dgvnsk7366/files/inline-files/26437.pdf
Are you perhaps catering for a convention with a lot of insurance CEOs attending? Because if you are, then yes bleach is in fact a lettuce sanitizer. Carry on, chefs.
It’s a thing. [Here’s a product](https://rapidclean.com.au/product/ecolab-sureshot-fruit-vegetable/) that is specially made for the job, but notice that the description states that it’s chlorine based – aka bleach.
What the fuck. I just got up.
The european union allows for up to 80 ppm of chlorine in water to santitize vegetables, as long as it is rinced afterwards.
I believe it goes up to 250 ppm in some states of the US but that is just hearsay, so a capful of bleach in a full sink is absolutely fine.
Where I work we use a diluted solution of food grade chlorine but we were always told that food safe bleach is fine too.
I have no clue whether it helps the lettuce stay fresh but it 100% helps reduce the amount of bacteria that can grow on it.
used to be pretty standard practice (in the states, at least). i’m in my 40s and when i started cooking at 15 i worked at a few places that did this.
Normally we just provide a shot of bleach with our salads to be sure
There are products specialized for produce….Microdyn, Bacdyn, Fit, Ecolab, Norwex, etc.
Also, a 1/4 vinegar/water solution. Far safer than bleach.
That lettuce looks shot anyway lol
This is a troll, right?
I am calling the police
We used to sanitize with a low % bleach solution, then rinse with freshwater, our iceberg lettuce at a&w
Bleach dissipates when exposed to oxygen and is why you need to replace bleach/water sanitation buckets every 2 hours. As long as you wait a few hours after rinsing it it would be safe, but the smell would stay because that’s a smelling agent they add for safety.
Plenty of things we eat get sanitized with bleach, but it’s also days/weeks between people eating it.
That being said I still wouldn’t do it. By the time I felt it would be safe to use it wouldn’t be safe to use, plus the smell.
Un France yes on a strict ratio and temperature, but vinegar is safer and cheaper weapon of choice
It seems like it’s still a toss up in this community! 😩 looks like most of you think it’s totally insane but then someone chimes in and goes well actually that’s a thing.
I just checked here: 2 table spoon of bleach with 1 Gallon of clean water is the measure. Soak in one minute or 2…rinse them with cold water..Federal regulation also permits (21 F CFR part 173).
Well I might actually be useful here. A capful of bleach is ~5ml. Its about anywhere from 2-8% bleach depending on what brand you’re using. A capful is probably pretty negligible for decontamination if you’re filling up a wash sink. Given how a standard wash sink from uline is about 128L (24x24x14”) thats about a 39ppm. Given how i just plugged in a bunch of shit online im not an expert, its probably safe if you rinse off the lettuce after a wash but you can always buy bleach test strips online if you want to know for sure.
Short answer is thats fucked.
I am just going to pretend I never read this post
That’s a real thing, lettuce has all those nooks and crannies to hold bacteria. Remember, there’s bleach in your drinking water, it’s just very diluted.. Usually you rinse the bleachwater off the lettuce before serving. Foodborne illness is rampant right now, so it’s good looking out on your boss’ part.
Here we go the other side of the (ph) spectrum and use diluted vinegar bath to well clean lettuce
the FDA in my country advises the population/restaurants to always use bleach to wash produce. they say it’s the most effective way to actually kill bacteria. vinegar, lemon etc don’t kill bacteria. never heard someone died from it.
It’s fine. At the appropriate dilution the bleach is significantly less harmful to you than the bacteria that could be growing on the lettuce. The CDC recommends 0.5 teaspoons per gallon of water, which is 0.065%. That is almost untraceable.
It’s fucking gross, food safe or not. Call the cops
It’s a solution, but NOT a good one.
I’m amazed how this is not a thing for many of you guys, I’m from Brazil and this is basically how every household sanitizes all fruits and vegetables, not only lettuce. This is so common here that pretty much all of our bleach brands are designed with this in mind, so you can pick up any bleach in the market and if you read the instructions you’ll find how to use the product to clean your house, wash your clothes and sanitize your food hahahaha.
I feel this is a knowledge getting in disuse though, like with a popularization of sanitizers that are specifically designed for food, the newer generations are preferring buying that than to use the old method, even though these sanitizers can cost the double of a common bleach, and you can’t even clean your house with them LoL 😂😂😂
Bleaching food is not only perfectly safe, it’s a standard practice, especially with products that have hard to reach places like leafy greens where bacteria and pathogens can harbor.
That being said, it needs to be done the right way, using bleach formulations that are intended for use with food (not laundry bleach) and according to instructions. A very dilute bleach concentration can be incredibly effective against bacteria and also kills off things like molds that can survive other sanitizers while being safe for humans.
I’ve had an inspector try to ding me for having bleach in my shops, but after explaining things to them, they were fine.
If you’re using bleach or thinking about it, do some research and do it right
A lot of kosher Kitchens (Rabbi’s) Wash lettuce with bleach
Is it too much to core your lettuce?
Is he trying to bleach the brown out of that lettuce?
My boss prefers lemon juice
Is this why lettuce always tastes like shit?
Vinegar is better
As someone that works in a place that doesn’t even rinse produce, I think I’d be better with the bleach than the risk of ecoli
It’s a low cost disinfectant… I can taste it in a lot of fast food.
When “night soil” is possible or when an organic farmer offers me an extremely dirty lettuce bundle I do it just help my consciousness. You never want a ecoli outbreak to come back to you.
Alton Brown agrees. I did this when my wife went through chemo for all fresh fruits and veg.
We’ve literally got a sign in our kitchen that says bleach and detergent aren’t made for vegetables. I wouldn’t wanna eat that.
Hypochlorite is used for this process at produce facilities and even grocery stores, but there’s a damn difference between the two.
This is sheer stupidity, stop work and call the local health board…like NOW
Source: I’m in a supporting industry and your boss is wrong on his assumption
For what it’s worth I’ve seen a pissed off owner whose manager ordered thicken thighs instead of breasts because they were cheaper. That particular case was meant to be for our chicken salad and the crotchety old bastard boiled 20 pounds before he realized it was dark meat, proceeded to chew the manager out at top volume across the entire kitchen, grab the bleach bottle and just start pouring it into this boiling chicken water “to make the meat white”. IIRC it actually worked and the chicken got used. I have no clue how many old ladies we sent to hospital that week. At least he made a chef special out of the other half of the case instead of boiling another batch with bleach. 🤮
Most bagged salads are processed with bleach. So, it’s a thing. But it’s wrong and he shouldn’t do it. A lot of people, like myself, are sensitive to that and it will make them sick. I found out the hard way when bagged salad flared up my autoimmune illness.
When I worked at a Sizzler back in the early 80’s.we.would.put the brown, wilted, slimy lettuce in a sink, pout in a bucket of ice, throw in a packet of “potato whitener”, fill the sink with water and in 20 minutes it looked like new!
I have no idea what was in the little packets of “potato whitener” but I bet it was bleach.