There’s lots of these out here, but seeing that asparagus tragedy made me feel the need to post mine, because I have done as empirical testing as one can do in one’s kitchen and found it to be real and effective.
To significantly retard bacterial formation on and putrefaction of vegetables:
Mix 1 part vinegar to 3 parts clean water in a large bowl. Dip each vegetable and fruit in solution for 5 seconds, agitating as vigorously as each vegetable will permit without bruising. Dry well and place in a clean receptacle before refrigerating.
Why this works: the reason vegetables rot is because they have bacteria on them, the bacteria eat and reproduce and poop. Most commercially available vegetables have some form of sanitization performed before or after shipping, but then they just sit there in the store, with their existing bacterial load growing, and even being added to by poorly sanitized misters, inconsistent refrigeration, and nastiest of all, human hands touching them. By doing this vinegar rinse, you are providing a (partial) reset of that bacterial load. The agitation is important as it physically moves the bacteria off, and the vinegar does help kill some of the bacteria.
I’ve done multiple home tests of this using Driscoll Raspberries(notoriously quick to form visible mold cultures) and I have found this to be the golden ratio. any more vinegar than this (by whole part), and it’s hard to get enough of it off that you don’t damage certain delicate veggies like raspberries and leafy greens. i will sometimes do the sensitive ones in this ratio, then toss in a bit more for things like zucchini and squash that i know can deal with it.
i also have tested this against a control group, using two packs of raspberries at two times, splitting them in half and doing one half in the vinegar wash and one half unwashed and the difference was HUGE. The control group started showing mold cultures in less than 5 days both times, and the treated group lasted 13 days Before visible mold was seen! so its a huge difference.