How to Wash Fruits and Vegetables Properly

None of these methods are full-proof. If the skin of a non-organic fruit can easily be peeled, I would just peel it off and eat the flesh; in the case of apples I would 100% of the time do this due to the high amount of pesticides and wax. You can also try to pick fruits and vegetables which are less exposed to pesticides, ones which grow underground, or which have thick peelable skins, such as: bananas, oranges, kiwis, cantaloupe, honey dew melon, watermelon, potatoes, onions, garlic, carrots. Avoid berries, grapes, tomatoes, and any other fruit or vegetable that grows above ground with a thin skin because not only is it difficult to remove the pesticides from the skin, there’s also a higher likelihood that the pesticides have seeped through the pores of the fruits’ skin into the flesh. (Choose organic for the thinner skinned plants, but even then you should still wash the produce with the following methods. The rules to be classified as “organic” fluctuate, and often just mandate a weaker pesticide to be used). 

Methods

Baking soda: Baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) works in two ways against pesticides: by neutralising the acidic chemicals (most pesticides are acidic, and baking soda is alkaline), and by acting as a mild abrasive which will break up the pesticides off the walls of the produce. 

To clean produce with baking soda: Fill your sink or a large bowl with cold water, add and mix roughly 1 teaspoon of baking soda to every 2 cups of water. Soak your produce in this mixture for 10-15 minutes, swishing them around, use a scrub brush if you’re willing to expend the effort; then empty the sink and rinse the produce with cold water. The cold water rinse will act even better as a solvent now, as well as applying further mechanical force. 

Vinegar: Vinegar is a mild acid, which allows for the removal of some oily pesticides if left on long enough. In my research and basic experiments, vinegar is not as effective as baking soda, but if it’s all you have it’s still worth the effort. 

To clean produce with vinegar: Fill the sink with water and 1/4 cup of vinegar. Allow to soak for 15-25 minutes, then dump the sink and rinse off with water. 

You may be wondering, can I just combine both baking soda and vinegar for a stronger effect? In this case, it’s not a good solution, as they’ll end up neutralising one another and create a salt that isn’t helpful for this purpose. 

Surfactants/Emulsifiers: The only benefit of buying a veggie wash is for the surfactant/emulsifier, otherwise the previous two methods are superior or equal. To properly understand what these do, we have to understand the physics of what surface tension is. 
A surfactant is not necessarily an emulsifier, but when cleaning pesticides it is beneficial if a chemical has both surfactant and emulsification actions, which many do. A surfactant is a substance which reduces the surface tension of a fluid. To quickly explain what that means: surface tension describes the film or skin on the surface of a fluid, like water, that has a higher density than the fluid below. Imagine a single water molecule in the centre of a lake, it is attracted and kept in balance by, let’s say, 10 other water molecules in all directions; but at the surface there are no attracting water molecules above the molecule (because above is O2), and so the molecule pulls more strongly upon the molecules beneath and to the sides of it, in effect creating a higher density at the surface (e.g. surface tension). Check out this incredible video for a visual.  A similar effect will occur on the surface of an apple or other produce submerged in water; the water molecules directly touching the skin of the produce will pull more strongly on the molecules behind and to the sides of them, creating a higher density of water molecules surrounding the produce, making it more difficult to disrupt the surface of the produce. The surface tension acts as a sort of shield. A surfactant disarms this phenomenon, and some surfactants also have the dual function of acting as an emulsifier, which simultaneously allows for the breaking of the surface tension and allows the oily pesticides to mix with water and thus break free from the produce. (Many pesticides are oil-based, and therefore water will not act a solvent to remove them because water and oil are immiscible (they don’t mix) fluids. An emulsifier allows water and oil to mix together, and by doing so allows the oil on the skin of produce to break free from the produce into the water bath you’ve submerged your produce in.) 

Common surfactants include soaps, detergents, and household cleaners, but these are more harmful for this purpose than beneficial. You need a special surfactant suited for cleaning produce. In any decent commercially sold veggie wash you’ll find some type of surfactant/emulsifier, and I believe these can be very useful for the purpose of cleaning pesticide residue from vegetables. 

The problem with surfactants/emulsifiers are that many of them are toxic, and leech into the skin of produce. One natural product which may act as a strong emulsifier for this purpose is the herb, Soapwort, which has a high amount of saponins and may be able to create a strong enough emulsification to have a good effect upon removing pesticides. It is likely that synthetic emulsifiers are much more powerful, though, such as potassium cocoate.

To clean produce with a surfactant/emulsifier: This will likely be one ingredient in a veggie wash, and you should follow the directions on the label. Don’t use dish soap or any common emulsifiers. Make sure your veggie wash actually has an emulsifier in it (the one I had been using didn’t).