Safe Fruits and Veggies

Safe Fruits and Veggies

How Safe are Fruits and Vegetables?

I don’t know about you, but all the talk about pesticides on fruits and veggies had me standing at the sink washing and scrubbing the veggies and fruit before I eat them. I soak them, I wash them, I spray them with water, I use a brush, I use a cloth, trying to get all that poison pesticide off them. But maybe I’ve been wrong. Maybe just rinsing off vegetables and fruit would enough.

By now you’re wondering what is wrong with me -rattling on like this about pesticides and veggies and fruits. Well, it’s my intro to our site of the week called “Safe Fruits and Veggies”. 

Safe Fruits and Veggies has a lot of information in its different sections

Calculate
Videos
The Science
Nutrition
Safety Standards
For Dieticians
Blog
About us
Just wash it

Before exploring the fruits & veggies pesticide calculator, which is my favorite section of the site.

And before we get started, here’s what the Federal Food and Drug Administration says about washing fresh produce before eating.

Washing fresh produce before eating is a healthful habit.

You can reduce and often eliminate residues if they are present on fresh fruits and vegetables as well as help remove dirt and bacteria by following these simple steps:

WASH

Wash produce with cold or warm running tap water and scrub with a brush when appropriate; do not use soap or detergents.

THROW AWAY

Throw away the outer leaves of leafy vegetables, such as lettuce and cabbage.

CLEAN HANDS/UTENSILS

Clean hands (for at least 20 seconds), scrub brushes, utensils, cutting boards, colandars and sink before using to wash your fresh fruits and vegetables.

That’s a lot of work for such a small chance of being poisoned by the pesticides that cling to the fruits and veggies you buy. Let me direct your attention to the pesticide calculator section of Safe Fruits and Veggies, which tells you how many servings of a vegetable or fruit you can eat before the pesticide residue would make you sick.

First, you select if you a man, woman, teen, or child. I guess men can handle more pesticides than women, teens, or kids. So, the serving sizes below are for me, a man, and not for women, children, or teens. I don’t want to get sued!

And one more thing… I didn’t make this stuff up. The information comes from reliable sources, I tells ya!

About Us

We are the Alliance for Food and Farming (AFF), a non-profit organization formed in 1989 which represents organic and conventional farmers of fruits and vegetables.

The information presented on this website was developed in conjunction with experts in the fields of toxicology, risk analysis, nutrition, health, and farming.

OK. So, now I know you can hardly wait to learn how many servings of various fruits and vegetables I could consume before I need to worry about pesticide residue taking me down. So, wait no more.

Here are just a few examples from the Safe Fruits and Veggies pesticide calculator.

Blueberries

A man could consume 18519 servings of blueberries in one day without any effect even if the blueberries have the highest pesticide residue recorded for blueberries by USDA.

A serving of Blueberries is one cup. Could you eat 18,510 cups of blueberries? If you can, please contact me – I’ll make you rich!

Grapes

A man could consume 941 servings of grapes in one day without any effect even if the grapes have the highest pesticide residue recorded for grapes by USDA.

A serving of grapes is about sixteen grapes. You figure it out. Could you eat 15,056 grapes?

Lettuce (non-organic/conventional)

A man could consume 5833 servings of lettuce (conventional) in one day without any effect even if the lettuce (conventional) has the highest pesticide residue recorded for lettuce (conventional) by USDA.

According to the FDA, a serving of lettuce is about 3 ounces. So, I could eat 17,499 ounces or 1093 lbs. or 495 kg of lettuce before succumbing to the pesticide residue.

Strawberries

A man could consume 635 servings of strawberries in one day without any effect even if the strawberries have the highest pesticide residue recorded for strawberries by USDA.

According to the USDA, a serving of strawberries is one cup or about 8 strawberries. So, you could eat about 5800 strawberries before the pesticide residue would get ya!

Here’s what the site says about what “No effect” means…

What is meant by “no effect?”

For every product, there is a point, or a dose level, that will not produce a response in a living organism. In the world of pesticide regulation, that point is called the No Observed Adverse Effect Level.

While your report lists the number of servings that can be eaten in one day, what about the effect of eating produce every day for a long period of time?

First of all, it is important to note that it may not be safe to eat the large amounts of produce referenced in this calculating exercise for many reasons other than the effect from pesticide residue.

The estimates of consumption used in the calculator are based on well-designed animal studies performed during rigorous pesticide safety evaluations and use scientific models to project observations from animal studies on humans.

It is important to know that extensive testing is done on pesticides to determine safety tolerances established by the EPA. These tests take into account acute and long-term exposure; aggregate risk from other sources; cumulative risks from other pesticides; and include additional safety factors to protect children, infants and fetuses.

It should also be noted that the USDA’s Pesticide Data Program consistently shows over 98 percent of the fruits and vegetables monitored do not exceed safety limits set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and, in most cases, the residues found are only a fraction of the allowable safety limits.

Even if the pesticide residues on produce are very small, why would I choose to eat produce that has any pesticides at all when I can buy organic?

Consumers should know that it is safe to eat fruits and vegetables whether they are conventionally or organically grown and health experts encourage increased consumption of all produce for good health. Toxicologists around the world agree that the mere presence of pesticide residues does not mean they pose a health risk. They also tell us that pesticide residues are currently measured by the USDA in “parts per million” or “parts per billion” and technology is continually advancing to measure pesticides in even smaller amounts — to the point where there is no such thing as zero.

If consumers are still concerned, the Federal Food and Drug Administration states that residues, if present at all, can be reduced or even eliminated by washing under running tap water.

And if you want to know even more about calculator go here.

And folks, we’ve barely scratched the surface. If this site could talk here’s what it would tell you…

What is the Alliance for Food and Farming?

The Alliance for Food and Farming (AFF) is a non-profit organization formed in 1989 which represents organic and conventional farmers of fruits and vegetables and farms of all sizes. AFF contributors are limited to farmers of fruits and vegetables, companies that sell, market or ship fruits and vegetables or organizations that represent produce farmers. Our mission is to deliver credible information about the safety of produce. The AFF does not engage in any lobbying activities, nor do we accept any money or support from the pesticide industry.

Teresa Thorne serves as the Executive Director of the AFF and is assisted in all aspects of running this non-profit organization by Rosi Gong. The AFF is based in the farming community of Watsonville, California and we are proud to represent farmers growing the food that health experts universally agree we should all eat more of every day…

…The AFF provides factual, science based information to reassure consumers about the safety of all produce. The information presented on this website was developed in conjunction with experts in the fields of toxicology, risk analysis, nutrition, health and farming. Providing consumers with science-based studies and analyses, peer-reviewed research and balanced information about the safety of fruits and vegetables allows facts, not fears, to guide shopping choices.

The AFF also counters and corrects misinformation and inaccuracies about produce safety which may discourage consumers from healthful eating habits and undermine public health efforts to increase consumption of fruits and vegetables…

And so on.

Anyway, we know you’re anxious to see how many apples or cherry tomatoes you can consume before surrendering to the unpleasant effects of pesticide poisoning. And if you are concerned about your spinach or kale consumption, don’t worry, they have you covered.

We found the pesticide calculator fascinating indeed, but there is much more to the Safe Fruits and Veggies website.

So, take some time to visit our site pick… Safe Fruits and Veggies.