(CNN) - You may want to start washing avocados before you eat them, at least if you want to follow the latest advice from the Food and Drug Administration.
While the recommendation may seem odd considering we don't even eat the peel of an avocado, the FDA says it's the only sure way to prevent bacteria and dirt from transferring from the peel, to your knife, to the insides that we do eat.
In a new report released this month, the FDA said about one in every five avocados tested positive for a bacteria that can cause listeria.
That's from a study conducted between 2014-16 that included domestic and imported avocado skins.
To reduce the risk even further, the FDA recommends scrubbing the avocado peel with a produce brush, then drying it with a paper towel.
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