5 apples, half a jin of wax? Off-season fruits should be peeled
[Introduction] 5 apples, and half a jin of wax scraped from the surface? A recent post on Weibo has attracted considerable attention. Waxing apples is nothing new. To give fruits a better appearance and allow for long-term storage, many fruits are "made up" before being sold. But can you still eat the waxed apple peel?
5 apples scraped out half a jin of wax? Nanjing also sells waxed apples
Recently, a Weibo post titled "5 apples scraped out half a jin of wax?" has gone viral, being forwarded tens of thousands of times. The post said that Mr. Zhao felt the apples were sticky and not properly washed, so he took a knife to scrape the apple skins. This scraping revealed a lot of white powder, which he found out online was wax. Mr. Zhao consulted a friend who is a doctor and was told that eating too much wax is definitely bad for one's health. This greatly angered Mr. Zhao, who likes to eat apples with the peel on, and he posted on Weibo to condemn the "unscrupulous merchants" who wax apples.How much can 5 apples weigh? How can they scrape out half a jin of wax?" Netizens commented that Mr. Zhao had "good knife skills," but after the jokes, some netizens also picked up apples around them to experiment. Many uploaded pictures saying the apples they ate were also waxed! "Eating apples with the peel is like eating candles!" Many netizens said they would definitely peel their apples in the future.
Yesterday afternoon, a reporter visited the fruit counter at a large supermarket in Nanjing. Staff explained that the apples here are of two types: packaged "premium apples," mostly imported and branded products, sold for 7 to 10 yuan each. There are also cheaper apples sold loose for 4 yuan per jin. Externally, the premium apples are fresher and shinier. The staff said this is the effect of waxing: "They look good and are easy to preserve. Look at this imported American apple, it's waxed and won't go bad even after half a year." The staff said he knew about waxing premium apples several years ago, but was not sure if the cheaper apples were waxed. When the reporter rubbed the loose, cheaper apples, a waxy substance also appeared.
Can the waxed peel be eaten?
Fan Zhihong, a PhD from the Department of Nutrition and Food Safety at the College of Food Science and Engineering at China Agricultural University, stated that from a purely nutritional perspective, apple peels do contain more nutrients than the flesh and can help prevent chronic diseases like high blood pressure. But can you still eat the waxed apple peel?The state permits apples to be coated with harmless edible wax
Yesterday, a reporter interviewed Zhang Yungui, Deputy Director of the Fruit Research Institute at the Chongqing Academy of Agricultural Sciences, an expert in fruit wax. Zhang Yungui told the reporter that the state permits waxing for preservation on fruit surfaces. "There are special machines for waxing fruit. The fruit must first be cleaned and dried before being waxed." Zhang Yungui said that apple skins naturally contain wax, a type of lipid that prevents external microbes from invading. The edible wax used in processing is mainly composed of natural shellac and carnauba wax, both of which are edible and harmless to the body.But unscrupulous merchants use industrial wax
Mr. Li, who is in the fruit business in Nanjing, goes to the Jiangning fruit wholesale market for supplies every day.Mr. Li said that for preservation, farmers will process the fruit by waxing it after selling it. He has also seen people waxing fruit at the wholesale market. "It's done in a warehouse, where they mix wax with water and spray it on the fruit. After being waxed, those misshapen fruits look much better." The waxing process described by Mr. Li is clearly very different from the formal procedure described by Zhang Yungui. Mr. Li said that fruit waxing is permitted by the state, but it cannot be ruled out that some unscrupulous merchants, to save costs, use industrial wax instead of edible wax. Industrial wax contains mercury and lead, which may be harmful to the human body.
How can you eat with peace of mind?
Off-season fruits should be peeled
"Fruits are usually waxed and colored when they are about to go out of season," said Mr. Li. After apples are harvested, to increase their commercial value and delay water loss, they are often polished with waxing machines and may also be treated with preservatives. Therefore, seeing apples with a particularly beautiful and shiny surface, especially off-season apples, it is best to peel them before eating. Apples ripen in the autumn, and fresh apples sold at that time do not need preservative treatment, so it is safer to eat the peel.Hot water and salt water can "wash off" edible wax
Fan Zhihong wrote a special article on her health blog about whether fruit peels can be eaten. She said that the wax on fruit peels mainly comes in three situations: the natural fruit wax of the apple; the edible wax applied by farmers; and the industrial wax applied by unscrupulous vendors. The first two are edible. If you really want to remove this layer of edible wax, it's very simple—just rinse it with hot water or salt water.A red residue after wiping might be industrial wax
Fan Zhihong suggested that when choosing waxed fruits, you can wipe the surface with your hand or a tissue. If a faint red layer comes off, it is very likely to be industrial wax.However, staff from the quality inspection department told the reporter that it is not easy to distinguish between edible wax and industrial wax with the naked eye. Fruit should be washed with salt water before eating, or simply peeled.