A Rant about Washing Vegetables

I've got to rant a little bit here, and see if maybe someone can answer a question for me.  Most everyone knows about food safety, like to what tempreature to cook chicken, and to wash your hands, etc.  What you may not know is that you can get certifiad as a safe food handler.  A lot of restaurant and other food related busniesses require it.  I just re-up'ed my Serv-Safe about a month ago.

Anyways, the rant.  One of the things they tell you is to wash your fruits and vegetables before prepping them for whatever your going to use them for.  The rule is under cold water for 15 seconds.  Appearently the friction from the water is enough to carry away the bacteria.  Now who really believes that?  You do?  Really?  Ok, allow me then to continue on.  Chicken needs to be cooked to 165 degrees to kill off salmonella (though eggs are 'special' and only need to be cooked to 155 to kill the same thing.... think about that for a second).  Non-ground beef needs to be cooked to 145 to kill e-coli AND e-coli only lives on the outside of the meat.  As long as the outside comes to 145, you can eat the inside raw and not get e-coli.

So, if all you need to do is wash veggies under running water and it's safe to eat, then can't we just run a steak under water then hand it to someone and KNOW that the e-coli bactiria has been washed away?

Anyone that can explain that, I'm all ears and am interested to learn.  Here is what I think though, the powers that be are so hung up on washing that even if it doesn't do jack, they will still tell you to do it and hope that you believe their crap.  If you don't believe me, just look at hand sanitizers.  Hand sanitizers now a days kill 99.9% of germs.  Just as good, if not better than hand washing, but even if you use hand sanitizers you still have to wash your hands for 20 seconds using really harsh soap.  Doesn't make much sense does it.  It's done that way because the government has invested so much into promoting hand washing that they will push that even it there is a different option that kills 100% AND virus too.

OK, that post sounds a little to much like a conspiracy theory.... I guess it is, though don't expect any topics to be popping up on the conspiracy forums and what not.