Scientists Find a Better Way To Wash Pesticides Off Your Apples (cnet.com)

According to a new study, the best way to reduce pesticides from your supermarket apple is to use a baking soda solution. The discovery was made by a team of scientists from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. They compared the effectiveness of plain tap water, a commercial bleach solution and a baking soda/water mix in removing pesticides from apples. CNET reports: The scientists started with organic Gala apples and applied the fungicide thiabendazole and the insecticide phosmet before testing the different washing liquids. "The baking soda solution was the most effective at reducing pesticide," a release on the study notes. "After 12 and 15 minutes, 80 percent of the thiabendazole was removed, and 96 percent of the phosmet was removed, respectively." The researchers say the industry-standard approach of washing fruit in a bleach solution for two minutes after harvest is not an effective way to completely remove pesticides. They also found the fungicide thiabendazole penetrated into the apple peel much more than the insecticide. Apple lovers would need to remove the peel to also get rid of the pesticide that wasn't washed off with the baking soda solution. The researchers published the findings this week in the American Chemical Society's Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

Comments

This is excellent.

[SeaFox]

I imagine the baking soda would be safer and cheaper for cleaning produce than a bleach solution.

Re:Dose

[rtb61]

Meh, I'll just peel apples from now on. I know I don't get as much nutrition but I like my nutrition free of pesticides, herbicides and various other rural pollutants. As for low doses, you know what, I'll be I could punch you in the face every day for the rest of your life and it would not shorten your life one little bit but I can assure that is sound reason to allow someone to punch you in the face ever day for the rest of your life. Poisoning yourself at non-lethal levels, still impacts your life, makes you more unhealthy, makes you suffer longer from infections and generally makes life a whole lot less satisfying, much like getting punched every day for the rest of your life. That it takes so long and another chemical to clean the chemicals off apples, means I will be peeling apples for the rest of my life unless they a reliably certified organic, punch yourself in the face as much as you want, I will not be joining you.