4 ms·

There's another factor that I think the OP fails to account for and that's washing produce before cooking and consumption. It's a habit I've been in for as long

There's another factor that I think the OP fails to account for and that's washing produce before cooking and consumption. It's a habit I've been in for as long as I can recall cooking with produce, which I probably picked up from my parents, and have seen in just about every kitchen I've been in. As far as I recall, it was less out of a concern over pesticide residue, but more to make sure all soil was removed from the produce before consumption. That latter point is very important! It _sucks_ to bite into a grain of sand when eating a salad because I neglected to wash the lettuce well. And even if the trace levels of pesticides were close to the unsafe chronic threshold, washing the produce to remove remaining trace dirt is, IMO, likely to take those trace levels of pesticides down far enough that I don't need to worry.

primroot 8y ago
Ever heard of systemic pesticides? "Pesticides can be classified based upon their biological mechanism function or application method. Most pesticides work by poisoning pests. A systemic pesticide moves inside a plant following absorption by the plant. With insecticides and most fungicides, this movement is usually upward (through the xylem) and outward. Increased efficiency may be a result. Systemic insecticides, which poison pollen and nectar in the flowers, may kill bees and other needed pollinators." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pesticide https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pesticide
- korethr 8y ago
  No, I had not. Today I learned a thing. Thank you. Clearly systemic pesticides will need to be addressed differently from those which simply coat the crop and leave residues, but I remain confident that washing produce before cooking and consumption is enough to reduce the latter to safe levels.
  - feanaro 8y ago
    Sadly, it's probably not universally true: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.jafc.7b03118 https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.jafc.7b03118 In my country, washing things isn't some kind of oddity some people do so that realizing why they do it makes it some cool new trick. Rather, everyone washes their produce for exactly this reason, but this study suggests it's far from foolproof.

primroot 8y ago

Ever heard of systemic pesticides? "Pesticides can be classified based upon their biological mechanism function or application method. Most pesticides work by poisoning pests. A systemic pesticide moves inside a plant following absorption by the plant. With insecticides and most fungicides, this movement is usually upward (through the xylem) and outward. Increased efficiency may be a result. Systemic insecticides, which poison pollen and nectar in the flowers, may kill bees and other needed pollinators." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pesticide https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pesticide

korethr 8y ago
No, I had not. Today I learned a thing. Thank you. Clearly systemic pesticides will need to be addressed differently from those which simply coat the crop and leave residues, but I remain confident that washing produce before cooking and consumption is enough to reduce the latter to safe levels.
- feanaro 8y ago
  Sadly, it's probably not universally true: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.jafc.7b03118 https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.jafc.7b03118 In my country, washing things isn't some kind of oddity some people do so that realizing why they do it makes it some cool new trick. Rather, everyone washes their produce for exactly this reason, but this study suggests it's far from foolproof.