If you want to take an extra step, consider submerging your produce in a solution of one teaspoon of baking soda and two cups of water for two minutes or more (the longer you soak, the more chemicals you get rid of), says He. (Note that this may not be practical for delicate produce, such as berries or mushrooms, because washing them too far ahead of eating them may speed spoilage.) The longer pesticides sit on fruits and vegetables, the deeper they’re absorbed, and the harder it is to remove them, he says. Rogers suggests that you do so as soon as you bring it home. You should also wash your produce before you eat it, by rubbing it under running water (or scrubbing if it has a tough skin). Consumer Reports has compiled this guide. Some types of conventionally-grown produce are more likely to have high levels of pesticide residues than others. Still, “It’s good to hear that something as simple and common as sodium bicarbonate-baking soda-is effective at removing some pesticides,” says James Rogers, Ph.D., Director of Food Safety and Research at Consumer Reports.īuying produce labeled USDA Organic is the best way to reduce your exposure to pesticides in produce, because organic crops are grown without the use of synthetic pesticides. “The effect of washing is not going to be consistent across all pesticides and probably not across all fruit and vegetable items,” says Cynthia Curl, Ph.D., assistant professor of community and environmental health at Boise State University, who wasn’t involved with the study. And no matter how thoroughly you clean your apples, you may not be able to remove all the chemicals, because some may penetrate more deeply into the fruit, depending on which pesticides they are and when they were applied. He points out that dozens of pesticides may be used in apple production, and the research team only looked at two. But it took 12 to 15 minutes in the baking soda solution to completely get rid of the pesticides used in this study. Submerging apples in a baking soda solution for two minutes removed more pesticides than a two-minute soak in the bleach solution, or two minutes of rinsing in running tap water. “One thing that surprised us was how long it took to wash the pesticides away,” He said. The researchers also washed the apples with a baking-soda and water solution, as well as with plain water. Then, the researchers washed different groups of apples in the bleach solution used in commercial processing. To see how effective different washing methods were at removing pesticides, He's team purchased organic Gala apples (a popular variety) and then treated them with two pesticides that are commonly used on apples, one of which is designed to penetrate into the fruit. Spinosad has been registered for use in pesticides and insecticides by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) since 1997.
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