🍎 Ever wondered why apples at the store are so shiny? That shine on your apples is NOT NATURAL! 🧪 Many conventionally grown apples often have a wax coating added after harvest to help them look fresher and last longer on store shelves. While this practice does help reduce food waste, it can also create a new problem👇: ❌ Those wax coatings can trap pesticide, herbicide, and fungicide residues underneath them, making those apples more likely to be TOXIC! There are some cleaning solutions you can do at home to help remove the wax coating from apples, but none are proven to be 100% effective for removing the wax coat. These are the 4 methods most commonly used: 1️⃣ Hot water alone 2️⃣ Room temp water + Vinegar 3️⃣ Room temp water + Baking Soda 4️⃣ Warm water + Baking Soda I wanted to see for myself if any of these cleaning solutions actually work, so I ran a test in my kitchen, letting an apple soak in each solution for 15 minutes, and then scraping it to see if the wax coating was removed. None of the methods completely removed the wax coating, but the most effective of the four seemed to be the Warm Water + Baking Soda solution. Unfortunately, even the additional step of scrubbing the apple with a vegetable brush for a full minute failed to fully remove the wax coating. This test shows us that washing your apples can help reduce surface contaminants, but it doesn’t remove the synthetic wax coating or the toxic compounds potentially trapped underneath them. However, if you want to minimize the risk of toxic exposure from apples: ✅ Choose organic apples when possible (look for a 9 on your produce stickers - my previous produce sticker video explains how to spot organic produce in any store) ✅ If you do buy conventional apples, the warm water + baking soda soaking solution paired with scraping or scrubbing as much of the wax coating off as possible can help make them a little cleaner. The next time you see a shiny apple at the store… you’ll know why. 🍎 - @nontoxicdad