Is it just water sprayed in the produce section? Study on most effective way to wash produce for pesticide removal.

The misting spray with the sounds of thunderstorms in the produce section-it is not just water. Study indicating best way to wash your produce.

When you are in the produce section of your grocery store, notice when the produce is misted with what looks like water; they also play thunderstorm sounds.

Photo by Kenny Eliason on Unsplash

It makes you think the produce you're buying is plucked from the ground on a rainy summer day.

I started to wonder what was in the misting spray. Is it just water? If so, is it tap water or something else?

There are several reasons why the produce in the grocery store is sprayed.

• It enhances the produce's freshness and makes it look more appealing to the buyer.

• It can extend the time to spoilage for some produce

• Spraying leads to more significant business profit.

I never thought of this last reason! If you purchase wet produce, the food's weight increases, and thus, it will cost more!

Look for dry produce or shake off the excess water so that you do not spend money on water on your produce!

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What Is In That Misting Grocery Store Spray?

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

This article indicated that the misting spray in grocery stores is treated water with chlorine added to it.

Chemstar Corporation is just one company that offers spray products for misting produce. Its site lists some of the major grocery stores it services, such as Safeway, H-E-B, and Sprouts.

Their product is called Produce Maxx. They do not provide an ingredient label.

I emailed them weeks ago to ask about the product ingredients and did not receive a response.

I don’t think I ever will get a response.

It sounds a great deal like Apeel. What are they trying to hide?

So what is in it?

The California Cleaning Right to Know Act of 2017 indicates the product does contain water, hypochlorous acid, and inorganic salt. It is also registered with the EPA as an antimicrobial product. I do not know if those are the only three ingredients in the product, but I would assume so.

However, why is the company making it so difficult to determine what is in Produce Maxx?

If so, you may be familiar with hypochlorous acid for its similarity to MMS and CDS. Hypochlorous acid is nicknamed MMS2 and is used to address ailments and diseases as is with MMS1 and CDS. Hypochlorous acid is a chemical that your white blood cells produce and is used to fight fungus, viral infections, and bacteria. The benefit of its use over CDS and MMS1 is that food does not affect it. You can find more information on MMS around page 69 in the Chlorine Dioxide beginner training manual.

If you are familiar with MMS1 and CDS, you ingest minute amounts. How much is on your produce, and does the quantity or quality impact your health? Is it a better option than solutions with added bleach?

Since I shop at NG and have had a reasonable email response rate, I will email them regarding what they spray on their produce.

UPDATE (June 5, 2024): NG got back to me. They only use water in their sprayers

Most Effective Way to Wash Produce

Photo by Giorgio Trovato on Unsplash

This was a very small study, and it had limitations. Still, it does indicate (for now) that they may have found the best way to wash our produce to remove all the toxins on them.

He et al. (2017) compared washing organic apples in which they applied two common pesticides 24 hours before and then washed the produce in either tap water, a 1% baking soda/water solution, or an EPA-approved commercial bleach solution often used on produce.

After 12 to 18 minutes, the baking soda solution removed 80% of the thiabendazole and 96% of the phosmet. Imaging revealed that in that time frame, thiabendazole penetrated the apple 80 micrometers deep, whereas the phosmet penetrated the apple 20 micrometers deep. They determined that washing the apples in a baking soda/water solution was the most effective way to remove these two pesticides from apples.

Some weaknesses of this study include that only two pesticides were examined, so we do not know if a baking soda solution will have the same effect on other pesticides. Additionally, the chemicals were placed on organic apples 24 hours prior. What would the difference be for conventional apples with 10 or more different chemicals sprayed onto them more than 24 hours before consumption?

Given more time from the apple's spraying to its eating, more chemicals may be absorbed, and therefore, less will be removed via the washing.

Using only tap water or the bleach solution was less effective, but since I can only see an abstract, I do not know if the other two options were significantly less effective. The abstract does not clarify the differences found.

Also, based on the abstract alone, we do not know if they only soaked the apples or if they scrubbed them, too.

The bleach cleaning was done according to the standard procedure of using it for 2 minutes. The baking soda/water solution was used for up to 18 minutes, meaning the apples were soaked in the solution.

Either way, it is a good reminder that tap water may not be beneficial. When you get home from the store, set up a bowl of the baking soda solution. As you unpack your produce, toss it into the water, soak and scrub.

Bottom Line

Just like with Apeel, ask at your store what they spray the produce with. You have a right to know what is on the fresh food you buy. Misting sprays are used on organic and non-organic produce.

Do you wash your produce? If so, what do you use?

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