Peel Those Apples: Washing Fruit and Vegetables Doesn’t Remove Pesticides, Study Finds
A new scientific report confirms consumer concerns about pesticide residues on food. There is new evidence that washing fruit before eating does not remove toxic chemicals widely used in agriculture.
The newspaper, Wednesday’s publication in the American Chemical Society’s journal Nano Letters comes amid ongoing debate over the extent to which food is contaminated with pesticides and the potential health risks associated with a steady diet containing pesticide residues.
In May, Consumer Reports reported that it had found that 20% of 59 different categories of fruits and vegetables contained pesticide residues at levels that posed “significant risks” to consumers, based on an analysis of data collected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
The central goal of the new paper is to share the technical details of a process the authors developed for improved trace detection of pesticides in food. But the underlying finding about the ineffectiveness of washing fruit is important for consumers who may rely on food safety practices that are inadequate, the authors say.
According to the report, “traditional fruit cleaning operations cannot completely remove pesticides.”
Using the technique to examine an apple, for example, the researchers said the “imaging results provide evidence that the pesticides penetrate through the peel layer into the pulp layer.”
The authors found that pesticide contamination decreased when the apple skin was removed, along with some of the pulp layer, thanks to the technology they developed.
“This study, which is within the broad domain of food safety, attempts to provide health advice to consumers,” said Dongdong Ye, a professor at the Chinese School of Materials and Chemistry at Anhui Agricultural University and an author of the paper. “Rather than raising unnecessary concerns, the study suggests that peeling can effectively remove almost all pesticide residues, unlike the often recommended practice of washing.”
Michael Hansen, a senior scientist at Consumer Reports, said the new technique could be useful for academics and government scientists to better understand the persistence of pesticides in foods and better protect consumers.
“This is actually helpful in understanding how these pesticides are getting in,” Hansen said. “This is more science that shows that yes, there are concerns. Don’t think that just washing is going to help you.”
The health risks of pesticides have been documented in several studies, but most of these relate to occupational exposures, rather than dietary exposures. The USDA and the Food and Drug Administration state that pesticide residues in food are generally not a health concern if they are within legal limits.
Both agencies have been tracking the amount of pesticide residues in food for decades and report their findings annually.
In the most recent USDA Pesticide Data Program ReportThe agency said 99% of the foods tested had residues within legal limits and therefore “pose no risk to consumer health and are safe.” This differs from the findings of Consumer Reports, which considers the government’s limits to be too high.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, more than 72 percent of more than 10,000 food samples contained detectable pesticide residues.
This story is co-published with the New Ledea journalistic project of the Environmental Working Group