7 simple steps to keep your sprouts healthy and safe

Sprouts are highly nutritious greens you can grow quickly and easily at home. We love adding them to salads and stir fries, or using them as a garnish. Grown correctly, sprouts can be ready in as little as 5 days, but there are important steps to follow to keep them healthy and safe to eat.

What are the dangers of growing sprouts?

Incorrectly grown sprouts can cause food safety problems because of bacteria growth. Sprouts like warm, humid conditions, and so do certain types of bacteria. For this reason, gathera recommends that pregnant women, infants and immunocompromised people do not eat sprouts.

7 simple steps to keep your sprouts healthy and safe

1. Sanitise your sprouting container. Keep your sprouting jar clean. Soaking the glass jar, lid and mesh in hot water before use should do the trick. If you are still concerned, use a splash of hydrogen peroxide and wash it off well afterwards.
2. Use filtered water. The cleaner the water, the safer the product. Tap water can introduce contaminants.
3. Rinse your sprouts frequently. Rinse at least twice a day. If you plan to eat sprouts raw, rinse even more often, for example every 6 hours.
4. Avoid standing water. Bacteria love moist environments, so let all the water drain from your sprouts using a drainage stand.
5. Enjoy within 7 days. Do not leave sprouts too long once grown, because that gives bacteria more chance to grow.
6. If in doubt, cook them. Steaming or sauteing sprouts helps kill any harmful bacteria that might be growing.
7. Keep your sprouts cool. Temperatures above 25 degrees C can promote the growth of harmful bacteria.

If you miss any of these steps, or your sprouts look or smell strange, throw them out and start again.

Mould or cilia hairs?

Cilia hairs appear on sprouts that need more water. They look like mould but have no odour and disappear when you rinse the sprouts. If the white hairs smell bad, are slimy and do not disappear when rinsed, it is most likely mould. Throw the sprouts out and start again.

Happy growing! For more information, see microveggy.com and Sprouthouse on mould and cilia hairs.

More in the sprouts series

• How can I grow sprouts at home?
• What is a sprouting jar?
• How to save money by growing your own sprouts

What we would use

Sprouting seeds are in our grow food range.

Written by the gathera team. Last reviewed October 2026.