Produce in Mexico

With all the lurid stories about the dangers of eating produce in Mexico, many people are leery and even afraid. I thought a few comments might be in order:

First, any produce that we do not peel or cook, we sterilize for 15 minutes. Thus, bananas, melons, potatoes, etc. we do not sterilize; however, everything else, we do. By the way, this really should apply to produce in the US and Canada too. In May, I saw a study done in the US. The old advice was wash everything well and it would be alright. No so, according to the study. Washing will get the loose dirt and some of the chemical residues, but not all the bacteria. North American produce should also be sterilized if one wants to be really safe! Thus, with our sterilization practices, we are actually safer than those of you who do not have such practices (and who does in Canada?). BTW, most restaurants also sterilize their produce.

Moreover, I have discovered that quite a bit of the produce we get here in Mexico, especially fruit, actually comes from California, including most of the strawberries, grapes, pears, apples, etc. They are often labelled that way in the supermarkets, but I noticed in the 'tianguis' (street market where most of the venders are resellers, not farmers and producers) that many of their produce boxes and crates were marked as produce of California. Thus, it is the same stuff you often get in Canada! Tomatoes and many vegetables are grown here as well as other fruit, but it’s hard to know. Anyway, since we arrived in May, we have had no problems whatsoever.