When the Environmental Working Group (EWG) released their annual Dirty Dozen list, we didn't want to look. The list reports which fruits and vegetables have the the highest detectable pesticide residue, and it's always a line-up of our most beloved produce. This year, for the first time in five years, apples lost their spot at the top of the list as the "dirtiest fruit"—to be replaced by strawberries.
Of all the strawberries sampled, 98% had pesticide residue and 40% had residue from ten pesticides or more. The report claims, "In California, where most U.S. strawberries are grown, each acre is treated with an astonishing 300 pounds of pesticides." Womp.
There is a silver lining: While the pesticides protect plants from insects, weeds, and disease, and are largely considered to be toxic, the amount of pesticide residue is so minute that it likely doesn't pose a longterm risk. They're measured in parts per million or billion (even in organic produce, which is pesticide-free whenever possible, but uses "naturally-derived pesticides" when necessary).
And properly washing fruits and vegetables can remove most of the existing residue on the surface (the pesticides that are absorbed by the roots are unavoidable but are a very small percentage of the overall pesticides). Here's how to properly wash your produce:
1. Make sure your hands are clean.
A step that is often skipped with washing produce is clean hands! If your hands are dirty when you start washing the produce, you'll transfer the bacteria that's on them to your fresh, beautiful vegetables. To be safe, wash them for at least twenty seconds with soap and warm water before preparing your vegetables.
2. Rinse your produce under running water.
The FDA's guide to preparing produce for consumption does not recommend using any soap or commercial produce wash—if you think about it, adding soap to your produce is like adding more chemicals to get rid of chemicals, which doesn't make a whole lot of sense. For the cleanest fruit, just run it under clean water and for firmer produce, use a clean produce brush to rub off any dirt or residue. See you later, pesticides.
Even if you're eating something that requires being peeled (like cantaloupe and avocado—which are both on the EWG's "Clean Fifteen" list!), rinse it before preparing it. Cutting through the skin with a knife will only carry whatever pesticides or bacteria are on the surface through the fruit itself—remember the lemon-rinds-pocalypse?
3. Dry with a clean towel.
Once your produce is squeaky-clean, dry it off with a clean dishtowel to further reduce the amount of bacteria it comes into contact with.
Still feeling a little iffy about the whole "Dirty Dozen" thing? Their list of the "Clean Fifteen" might be just the thing to lift your mood. (There are lots of our favorites there, too!)
Do you always wash your produce before eating it? How concerned are you about pesticides? What steps do you take to avoid consuming them? Tell us in the comments below!
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Written by: Leslie Stephens
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25 Comments
What a ridiculous sentence. The number is meaningless with no point of reference. It's meant to scare you but lacks any evidence to support fear. There is a difference between a hazard and a risk.
There are a number of other ways in which this article misses the mark and shows a large lack of research, more complex issues include bio-mimicry as a contributor to autoimmunity, liver overwhelm and the increased toxicity when phase 2 liver detox does not keep up with phase 1, etc., etc., etc. It's clear that toxicity is a major contributor to the chronic illness that overwhelms this country.
I also own a small care home for elderly, where we vigorously wash with a brush, the firm items like potatoes & carrots, and wash others soaking in the sink with vinegar/water, baking soda, peroxide, depending on the food. I had a caregiver who used to wash Everything, even bananas (separately) and I noticed that bananas Looked more appetizing, as opposed to having random spots of things, and
People Ate More good foods that are healthy.... The same goes of course for making a pretty plate. We think about it for ourselves, to impress our friends perhaps, or to make our plate nicer so we eat less and lose weight, while still enjoying it.
But it's worth thinking about for our elderly family members and children, to be sure they eat more healthy foods, so they don't become the fast food crowd (or keep eating habits that aren't necessarily good for them) left to their own devices, many will ask for cookies and if we keep them, eat things with HFCS instead of natural sugars that help to stabilize blood sugar, rather than spike it.
Fruits and veggies are so critically important in elder care and the vast majority of my colleagues largely ignore them.
*facepalm*
Science was not your strong suit in your schooldays, I can only presume.
Stop buying new electronics - BUY ORGANIC EVERYTHING!!!!!
B JURDI
http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/health/natural-health/pesticides/index.htm
this is the last section, which explains part of what I was trying to find out: in some cases you can wash it off, but in others, there is just too much pesticide absorbed by the plant through the roots, and there, it looks like organic is the way to go.
this is from the Consumer Reports study:
Can you wash away pesticides?
About half of the people in a recent Consumer Reports survey believe that peeling fruit or vegetables removes or reduces pesticides and 43 percent think you can remove them by washing. And they’re right—sort of. Rinsing can remove the surface residues, as well as dirt and bacteria. But you can’t completely wash away the pesticides—or the risk. Pesticides can stick to soft skins, and the wax coating used on some produce can trap pesticide residues. And some pesticides are systemic, that is they are taken up by the plant’s root system and get into the fruit or vegetable flesh so they can’t be washed off. What’s more, the USDA measures pesticide residues after produce has been rinsed in cold running water and/or inedible peels and rinds are removed. So the pesticide residues used to calculate our dietary risk guide are those that remain after the fruit or vegetable has been prepped the way you would at home.
Wash your produce—conventional and organic—in running water. You don’t need any special washes. Researchers at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station compared rinsing fruit and vegetables in plain water for one minute with washing them with vegetable washes (four different ones) and a solution of dishwashing soap and water. Water alone was as effective as any of the washes or soap. Rubbing produce with soft skins like peaches or using a vegetable brush on harder items like potatoes or carrots will help remove residues, dirt and germs.
My question was, when pesticides are sprayed on fruit, does simply washing them in the sink remove those residues adequately. If so, then wouldn't rain, or irrigation also keep washing them off. I'm wondering if those pesticides have something that makes them stick to the fruit even when wet, so they help it ward off disease and pests. If that is the case, I think just a spritz in the sink wouldn't get rid of them. It would be interesting to know how much pesticide residue is actually still on or in fruit when you buy it at the grocery store, and will a simply wash really get rid of it.
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