Wash fruit with baking soda?

Is a quick rinse with water enough to remove all pesticide residues from fruit?

Pesticides are used to increase farm productivity. However, pesticide residues may remain on the produce (e.g. fruit) after harvesting, resulting in intake by consumers. In very large quantities, pesticides may have potential adverse health effects on humans. Therefore, you may want to limit your pesticide intake.

Companies often use a Clorox bleach wash to reduce pesticides (i.e. submerging for 2 min and rinse off with water). Is this sufficient to remove all pesticide residues or should other washing techniques be used?

This study investigated the effectiveness of a 2-min thorough hand rinse with water, a 2-min Clorox bleach wash, and 2, 8, or 12 min baking soda (NaHCO₃) washes for removing pesticide residues on apples. The baking soda concentration was 10 g baking soda per liter.

The standard 2-min Clorox wash was effective in reducing some pesticides from the apples. However, the 2-min hand rinse with water was slightly more effective, which suggests that hand rinsing is more beneficial than a passive bath. The 2-min baking soda bath was the most effective of all 2-min treatments, suggesting that baking soda is particularly effective. Still, a 12-min baking soda bath was needed to remove all pesticide residues from the apples’ surface.

Although a 12-min wash with baking soda removes all pesticides from the surface, not all pesticides were removed from inside the apple (about 80% were removed).

It’s important to note that dietary intake for most pesticides is about 100 times lower than what is considered the acceptable daily intake. Do not avoid fruit intake out of fear that it does more harm than good because of pesticide residues.

Study:
Yang et al. Effectiveness of Commercial and Homemade Washing Agents in Removing Pesticide Residues on and in Apples. J Agric Food Chem, 2017.

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