Food standards Agency (FSA) claims that, it is highly unlikely that you can catch Covid-19 from food. Coronavirus requires a human host body to survive and unlike bacteria it will not be able to survive on food longer than any other surface. According to World Health Organisation (WHO), the risk of catching coronovirus from a packaged food that has been moved, travelled, and exposed to different conditions, environments and temperature is also very low. So considering the risks are low, but still present, and you want to be extra cautious, you can store your produce or food products 72 hours prior using them, do not use soap, sanitizers or other cleaning chemicals and detergent.
Pesticides:
Pesticides are used to control plant diseases, insect pests, and weeds and regulate plant growth to ensure the quality and quantity of the produce. Pesticides are not made up of one component, but consist of several mixtures and adjuvants.
Excessive pesticide residues can do great harm to customers, with effects such as neurotoxicity, carcinogenicity, reproduction abnormality, and cell dysplasia.
In the food industry - food processing, such as washing, peeling, blanching, and cooking, plays a common role in the reduction of residues. Washing is the most common and direct form of food processing, is usually the first step before consumption, and is used for removing pesticide residues in fruits and vegetables. The best method to ensure your fruits and vegetables are free from most chemicals, pesticides and food-bourne illness bacteria like salmonella, E.coli is to wash and rub them under cold running water for 1-2 mins and the further soaking them in distilled or filtered water for another 1-2 mins. Ensure your hands, sink and counter-top is clean before cleaning the fruits and veggies.
The longer the pesticides sit on fruits and vegetables, the deeper they are absorbed ad harder to remove. So it is a good practice to wash them as soon as you buy them but this is not a practical option for some delicate produce like berries and mushrooms as it may speed their spoilage.
There are some exceptions to this method:
a. Green Leafy vegetables: Wash greens by separating leaves and soaking them in a bowl of cool water for a few minutes. Drain the greens using a strainer or colander and repeat this process, this is easy to do in a salad spinner. The goal here is dilution. Another technique is to pre-soak greens for 5-10 minutes in a mixture of vinegar and water (1 part distilled white vinegar per 4 parts water), which should be followed by a clean water rinse. This has been shown to REDUCE but NOT eliminate bacteria contamination, and it may slightly affect texture and taste. Hence, I prefer to use salt solution (10% salt in filtered water). Dry the leaves with clean towel or salad spinner and store them in air-tight containers below 5°C.
b. Porous fruits and vegetables: Like strawberries, carrots, bean sprouts do not have a shiny waxy skin and hence the pesticides have penetrated deep within them. Softer berries like raspberries and blackberries are not advised to be soaked in water due to water getting trapped in the resulting in spoilage and mould formation. Instead putting them in a colander and rinsing them with vinegar (25%) solution has been proven to be very efficient in removing pesticides.
c. Cheapest and effective solution - baking soda: The above methods including buying organic food (which we will cover the next section) are expensive methods. In a study published in Journal of agriculture- Food chemistry*- It was shown that surface pesticide residues were most effectively removed by sodium bicarbonate (baking soda, NaHCO3) solution when compared to either tap water or Clorox bleach. Using a 10 mg/mL NaHCO3 washing solution, it took 12 and 15 min to reduce the surface pesticides by 67-99%. However, the NaHCO3 method was not completely effective in removing residues that have penetrated into the apple peel. The overall effectiveness of the method to remove all pesticide residues diminished as pesticides penetrated deeper into the fruit. In practical application, washing apples with NaHCO3 solution can reduce pesticides mostly from the surface. Peeling is more effective to remove the penetrated pesticides; however, bio-active compounds in the peels will become lost too.
Why Do I stress on eating ORGANIC FOOD?
Buying produce labelled organic is the best way to reduce exposure to pesticide toxicity. Organic produce will not be 100% pesticide free but the regulations and levels used are very stringent.
Conventional farmers are allowed to use from 900 synthetic pesticides, whereas organic farmers are allowed to use from 25 and that too at regulated levels. So you an do the math!
Children are at higher risk for pesticide toxicity, their developing brain is more susceptible to neurotoxins. Pregnant women when exposed to high levels of pesticides have been found to have children with lower IQs compared to children with the lowest levels of pesticide exposure.
Also, children exposed to pesticides are at an increased risk for a variety of chronic conditions, including learning and behavioral problems. This evidence was backed by a study conducted at Stanford Medicine, even though the nutritional levels of organic vs conventional food was inconclusive there was definite evidence on reduction of pesticide toxicity by consuming organic produce.
Buying organic food is an expensive affair and finding them is more difficult sometimes, especially strawberries. I have a list below for you to help you with this problem. The list includes of which fruits and vegetables we should try and buy organic.
I have created this short summary video, which you can share with your friends and family. Write any questions and comments you have on this topic and I will be happy to answer them straight away.
Source:
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2019 Feb; 16(3): 472
J Agric Food Chem. 2017 Nov 8;65(44):9744-9752
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