CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — With the recent heat wave, many dairy, poultry and meat products can be at risk of going bad and cause food borne illness.
However, fruits and veggies could also be at risk in heat.
Roselo Arreola has been a loyal customer at Fruit King for over 30 years.
“The quality, you have to pick it, you pick your own quality, too. If something doesn’t look good, don’t buy it,” Arreola said.
Arreola said with this heat, he tries his best to keep his fruits and veggies fresh at all times.
"First of all, you have to wash everything and make sure that it stays refrigerated. Here, they keep everything refrigerated so the heat isn’t really affecting the fruit at all,” Arreola said.
“The heat is very intense sometimes it can slow down production, like mess up the produce, which are things that we don’t get in recently like our blueberries,” Fruit King manager Sally Martinez said.
Martinez added people should chop their produce and freeze it to last longer and to store produce in a clean refrigerator to avoid any contamination.
According to The Federal and Drug Administration, if you notice your fruits or veggies are bruised or damaged, it’s best to cut those areas out before cooking them or eating them.
Now that the summer has begun, Martinez said she has seen an increase in customers.
“I know it is more due to the kids being at home people planning their trips to the beach, a lot of people want to buy more they have kids at home that they want to feed and of course, fruit is a lot better than chips,” Martinez said.
Martinez said washing your fruits and veggies is crucial.
“It does come from the ground, with the soil and the dirt, it comes from the ground so you might want to wash it before you put it in your food.” Martinez said.
FDA officials said it is important to always keep your fresh produce stored separately from raw meats to avoid cross contamination.
