I was talking about fruit and vegetable washing the other day and thinking
about it again today as I washed off my kale. The issue is relevant to me
because I like to buy local produce, and I’ll usually choose it over
organic produce, which means I have to deal with the residual pesticide
issue. My strategy for this is to soak vegetables in a big bowl of water
(which has the advantage of letting the dirt sink to the bottom too), lift
the vegetables out of the water and then either rinse them or soak them
again. Of course, I have no idea if this is actually doing anything, which
is why I was gratified to find this
page, that reports on a study investigating the effects that washing in
tapwater and using a light soap solution has on pesticide residues. The
results suggest that rinsing produce under tapwater for one minute
significantly reduces pesticide residues of several of the pesticides
considered (9 out of 12), and that using a soap solution does not
significantly increase the effect.
posted at 12:14 on Mon, 16 Oct, 2006 |
path: /living
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