Can washing fruits and vegetables with salt, vinegar and baking soda really remove pesticides? Pesticide chemists put forward the principle analysis and found that the most effective lotion is flowing tap water. Wash it right, less pesticide residue, more peace of mind!

It is circulated on the Internet that "washing vegetables with vinegar can remove all pesticides". Quoting the scientific exhibition papers of Kaohsiung High-Tech Chemical Engineering Department, the content points out that it is proved by spectrum that soaking vegetables with vinegar water can remove pesticides.

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The cleaning method is as follows:

1. Add 3 drops of common white vinegar to water and soak a broccoli for 2 minutes to remove pesticides. Great! Better than baking soda powder, you can use 2 or 3 drops of ordinary vinegar for 2 minutes.

2. Add a cup of rice vinegar to the basin, stir it, and add different fruits for about ten minutes. At this time, the water will become very dirty, the fruit will be full of light, and there will be no wax or dirty spots attached to the fruit. Strawberries, red berries and blueberries can all be washed in this way.

This statement is widely circulated on the Internet, and even many people ask the school for verification through the Internet or Facebook. The school then publicly stated that "washing vegetables with vinegar cannot remove all pesticides, and only pesticides with amino and base structures can be removed by vinegar. For example, the pesticide insect worship studied in this exhibition paper has amino structure. 」

In short, the statement pointed out that "vinegar can indeed dissolve some pesticides, but not all pesticides. Therefore, vinegar is by no means a universal pesticide cleaner for fruits and vegetables.

How to effectively remove pesticide residues from fruits and vegetables and reduce food safety risks has always been a topic of public concern. In addition to vinegar, baking soda and salt are widely circulated natural emulsions that can remove pesticides. Which is better?

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Yan Ruihong, a professor in the Department of Agricultural Chemistry at National Taiwan University, analyzed the principle and effect of pesticide cleaning for salt, baking soda and vinegar one by one in the book "Wash vegetables correctly and get rid of the shadow of pesticides":

salt

Pesticide components attached to fruits and vegetables are mostly fat-soluble substances. If it is washed with salt water, the solubility of salt water to fat-soluble compounds is not good. Most diluted salt water is soaked, and the effect is not as good as that of clear water washing.

sodium bicarbonate

The chemical name of baking soda is sodium bicarbonate, which is weakly alkaline and is often used in food to neutralize acidity. But there are many acidic pesticides, which will degrade faster in alkaline environment.

For example, the pesticide marathon commonly used in cruciferous vegetables or leafy vegetables has a half-degradation cycle of six days at pH7 and only half a day at pH9. But washing vegetables usually takes more than ten minutes, so washing with baking soda in a short time may not be better than washing with water.

vinegar

Vinegar is acidic, so cleaning the fruits and vegetables using pesticide marathon with vinegar will prolong the degradation time and the effect of removing pesticides is counterproductive. At the same time, the taste of vinegar will remain on fruits and vegetables. If raw food is not cooked, it will affect the flavor of food.

It can be seen that the washing effect is the best! But there are still some skills that need special attention. Lin Yisheng, a professor of biotechnology at Asian University, mentioned in the article "Pesticides and Life" that the cleaning effect of pesticide residues is related to the location of pesticide residues on fruits and vegetables, the types of pesticide residues and the cleaning methods.

If it is a contact pesticide, most of the residues can be easily removed by proper washing, brushing or peeling. If systemic pesticides have entered the inner layer of fruits and vegetables, in addition to cleaning, residual pesticides can be decomposed, dispersed or dissolved in oil and water by heating and cooking.

As for the method of washing vegetables, you can refer to the "Correct Method of Washing Vegetables" provided by the Food and Drug Administration of the Ministry of Health to teach you to clean correctly and avoid pesticides on the table.