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 You can remove dirt from an apple by simply wiping it on your clothes, but this is not enough to remove pesticides from the apple. Research has shown that baking soda, such an ordinary and affordable product, can easily help you with this.
You can easily wipe the apple on your clothes, but it takes more effort to get rid of pesticide residues. According to research published in the ACS journal Agricultural and Food Chemistry, baking soda can easily remove pesticides from apples.
Thanks to pesticides, yields have increased significantly, but the problem of their impact on human health has been on the rise for many years. Washing can be one of the most effective ways to remove pesticides from food and is often used in the food industry.
But even the use of modern methods will not help to cleanse fruits and vegetables of some plant protection products. Lily Hee and his colleagues wanted to figure out the best way to wash apples to reduce the amount of pesticides.
Scientists used the most common types of pesticides - the fungicide thiabendazole, which, according to research, penetrates the apple peel, and the insecticide fosmet, used to treat organic Gala apples. They then washed the apples with three different methods: a 1% solution of baking soda and water, tap water, and a standard U.S. EPA-recommended bleaching solution, which is often used in manufacturing. Apples are best peeled with a baking soda solution. Within 12 minutes, 80% of thiabendazole was removed, and after 15 minutes, 96% of fosmet was removed. This difference is most likely due to the more intense absorption of thiabendesole by the apple. According to the analysis of the internal structure, thiabendazole was found at a depth of 80 μm in apples, while phosmet was at a depth of 20 μm. Washing with either bleach solution or regular tap water for two minutes was not as effective.
Source: Materials provided by the American Chemical Society.
Beseganich E.S.
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