Oh well – washing your fruit may not remove pesticide residues
We’ve written before at HuffPost UK about how surprisingly likely cross-contamination is in your unwashed, reusable shopping bag.
Because of this, I’ve become obsessive about washing my fruit and vegetables ever since. But according to a recent study, that may not be enough (adult life is so unforgiving, isn’t it?).
An article published in the American Chemical Society’s journal Nano Letters states that “regular fruit cleaning procedures cannot completely remove pesticides.”
How come?
The authors of the article wanted to find a better way to identify and track the amount of pesticides in produce.
As part of their search, they used imaging techniques on fruits such as apples and found that “pesticides penetrate through the peel layer into the pulp layer.”
This largely disappeared after the fruits and vegetables were peeled.
They apparently did not test how harmful the specific amount of pesticides on the fruit peel would have been to the consumer, which is a different question.
But to the extent that pesticides harm people – and the Environmental Protection Agency acknowledges that they can, although the harm varies depending on the pesticide and dose – the study found that “the risk of pesticide ingestion by
Fruits cannot be avoided by simple washing, apart from peeling.”
So what should I do about it?
One of the study’s co-authors, Professor Dongdong Ye, says there’s no need to panic – if you’re worried about the pesticide content of your food, you might want to peel it.
“Instead of creating unnecessary fears, research suggests that peeling removes almost all pesticide residues, unlike the commonly recommended washing,” he said.
And then there’s the fact that the peeling method is only necessary if your food has more pesticide residues than is safe.
A 2021 British study found that only 2.55% of products had pesticide residues above recommended levels, while 48.64% of 3,530 samples from 29 different foods showed no residues at all.
Washing your food is still an important step to remove dirt from your food.
If you prefer to leave the peel on, the National Pesticide Information Centre recommends: “Washing and rubbing the produce under running water is better than submerging it.”
