It's hard to imagine bad things happening from eating a very small amount of soil as you note.  But the question is, are you eating soil or something else?  We have experienced a number of recalls here in the US on "washed" and unwashed produce - onions, tomatoes and spinach recently.  In each case, the produce in question carried a potentially deadly microbe.  One death occured near where I live from the spinach recall ( a bagged, "washed," ready-to-eat spinach).  In these instances, the "soil" on the produce was from organic fertilizers (i.e. manure) - so buying "organic" produce is no guarantee that you are not also getting some cow crap.
   
  We grew up eating directly out of our garden.  As kids we would often wander over to the garden and eat carrots that we merely brushed off - onions too.  We never saw any ill effects and there are some who believe that the minerals in the soil are highly beneficial.  Of course we never fertilized the garden, so there were no chemicals or manures on our vegetables.
   
  gale

Ashley Moran <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
  I don't mean as one of your five portions of fruit and veg a day :)

I was thinking, I've never been especially fanatical about cleaning 
veg. I've never bothered washing (organic) celery, and that's always 
got some dirt on it. Most veg I cook though.

What's the worst you could do to yourself like this? Are there any 
dangerous viruses, bacteria, parasites or anything you could pick up? 
I live in the UK so I'm thinking of north european soil, although I 
imagine most non-tropical soils would be similar.

Ashley



       
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