this post was submitted on 06 May 2024
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Oh damn I did not know about this! Does rinsing make a significant difference in safety? Doesnβt seem to be super common or well-researched. I wonder what the level of risk is with foraging.
To be honest Iβve been eating unwashed wild berries my whole life so hopefully not too risky haha.
Same here, never had any problems so far, but every so often I hear or read that one should be careful π
From what I know rinsing should be good enough, however I have literally no way to back this up, so do your own research. Whenever I have access to clean water I rinse anyway, if it might not help, it certainly won't hurt.
For instance, this German article says that it is likely a myth that wild berries are an infection vector, since there have not been many / any cases traced back to this source conclusively, but that it is hard to definitively link it to a certain source, since it takes a lot of time from contact to the first symptoms.
Even so, the infection rates are going up in the last few years, but that may be completely unrelated to wether people pick wild berries or not