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On apples treated with three common pesticides, the finding played out on the fruit\u2019s skin, where the wash removed 86 to 94 percent of the residue.<\/p>\n
At the University of British Columbia, (UBC<\/a>), Dr. Tianxi Yang, an assistant professor, demonstrated that result while testing a rinse built to tackle the contamination people actually bring home.<\/p>\n Plain water, starch, and baking soda also cleaned the apples, but none matched the same level of removal.<\/p>\n That gap leaves the next question in plain view: what in this wash<\/a> lets it pull so much more off the fruit.<\/p>\n How the fruit wash works<\/p>\n Inside the liquid, tiny starch particles carry iron and tannic acid, a plant compound that gives tea its dry taste.<\/p>\n When those ingredients meet, they assemble into a sticky metal-phenolic network, a web that can cling to pesticide molecules.<\/p>\n Because the network grabs the fruit surface and the residue at once, much of the contamination lifts off.<\/p>\n Using starch matters too, since corn- and potato-derived material breaks down naturally instead of leaving a lasting plastic film.<\/p>\n Why dual action<\/p>\n Fresh produce spoils fast, and global losses<\/a> for fruits and vegetables reached 25.4 percent in 2023.<\/p>\n Much of that loss happens because bruised, drying fruit keeps breathing after harvest and burns through water and sugars.<\/p>\n Ordinary washing can cut some residue, but it does nothing to slow the drying and bruising that follow.<\/p>\n That left room for a wash that cleans first and then protects fruit during the vulnerable days after purchase.<\/p>\n The protective coat<\/p>\n After the first rinse, a second dip dries into a light edible coat<\/a> that slows oxygen movement and water loss.<\/p>\n That matters because cut fruit browns when enzymes meet oxygen, and drying speeds the softening people notice first.<\/p>\n \u201cThe coating acts like a breathable second skin,\u201d said Dr. Yang. Because the layer still lets gases move, it can slow decay without sealing fruit in low-oxygen conditions.<\/p>\n What apples showed<\/p>\n Fresh-cut apples showed the coating effect quickly, browning more slowly and losing less water<\/a> over two refrigerated days.<\/p>\n With less moisture escaping, the slices stayed firmer, and fewer exposed surfaces turned the dull brown shoppers usually reject.<\/p>\n Measurements of acidity and natural sugars also stayed higher, which suggests the fruit held onto flavor as well.<\/p>\n That kind of delay is short, but it matters most for cut fruit because spoilage starts almost immediately after slicing.<\/p>\n What grapes showed<\/p>\n Whole grapes told the longer story, staying plump for 15 days at room temperature while untreated fruit visibly shriveled.<\/p>\n That happened because the coating reduced water escape from the skin, which is the fastest path to wrinkling.<\/p>\n The treated grapes also showed antimicrobial activity, the ability to slow harmful microbes, which could further hold back spoilage.<\/p>\n For growers and stores, even a modest gain like that can buy crucial time in transit and on shelves.<\/p>\n Safety of the rinse<\/p>\n Safety depended on dose as much as chemistry, and the extra iron from one washed apple stayed very low.<\/p>\n Adult upper limits<\/a> for iron sit at 45 milligrams a day, far above what the coating added.<\/p>\n \u201cOur goal was to create a simple, safe and affordable wash that improves both food safety and food quality,\u201d said Yang.<\/p>\n That promise still needs broader testing, because safe intake on one fruit does not answer every diet or every age group.<\/p>\n What scaling may cost<\/p>\n Commercial use will depend on cost, and preliminary numbers put treatment near three cents per apple<\/a>.<\/p>\n That estimate came from cheap ingredients mixed in water, with tannic acid and iron salts driving only part of the bill.<\/p>\n The calculation did not include equipment, wastewater handling, maintenance, or regulatory work that large packing lines would face.<\/p>\n Even so, matching the price of current coatings while adding pesticide removal could make processors pay attention.<\/p>\n From lab to sink<\/p>\n A home version remains farther off, even though Dr. Tianxi Yang has already described a spray or dissolving tablet that would suffice.<\/p>\n \u201cImagine a spray or tablet you could add to water right before washing your fruit,\u201d said Yang.<\/p>\n Household use still needs regulatory review and real-world tests across different fruits, peel types, and washing habits.<\/p>\n Until then, plain running water remains the official advice<\/a>, while this formula stays a promising next step.<\/p>\n Why this could matter<\/p>\n What emerges is a rare food technology that addresses two ordinary annoyances at once, chemical residue and fast spoilage.<\/p>\n If larger trials hold up across more produce, the wash could cut waste without asking shoppers to peel away freshness.<\/p>\n The study is published in ACS Nano<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u2014\u2013<\/p>\n Like what you read? Subscribe to our newsletter<\/a> for engaging articles, exclusive content, and the latest updates.<\/p>\n Check us out on EarthSnap<\/a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls<\/a> and Earth.com.<\/p>\n \u2014\u2013<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Researchers have found that a new fruit wash strips away most surface pesticides while leaving behind an edible…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":384962,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[111,139,69,147],"class_list":{"0":"post-384961","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-new-zealand","9":"tag-newzealand","10":"tag-nz","11":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=384961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384961\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/384962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=384961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=384961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=384961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}