Wax?

[walnutty]

I purchase my organic produce from Whole Foods Market, Trader Joe's and Sprouts. All three of these stores puts wax on their apples and cucumbers. I have asked about this wax and am just told that it is a vegetable wax and that it is safe for consumption. This bothers me.....:( Does anyone have any information about this wax?

Thanks a bunch!

[EZ rider]

I have heard that wax on foods goes through the digestive tract and plugs up the absorption areas so that nutrients can't be absorbed. Lots of rough, rugged raw natural fiber helps to clean the wax out so that it isn't gumming up the works. Also peeling the skins off of suspected carriers of wax helps prevent it entering the digestive system.

[walnutty]

How can they (Whole Foods, Trader Joes's and Sprouts) do this to the organic produce? I have always wondered how they can get away with it. The last apple I purchased from Whole Foods Market was a beautiful Braeburn, my favorite. It was perfect!!! BUT when I bit into it...it was mush. It was so grosss! It's like the wax was put on it to preserve it, but the inside of the apple was rotting. It kind of defeats the purpose of purchasing these items organic if they are covered with wax. I don't care for apples too much, but I juice a whole cucumber every morning. What should I do? Any suggestions would be appreciated...thanks!

[luckitri]

walnutty, I have noticed that some stores now put in fine print in the ads that these apples are a new crop - because some of us are learning how they somehow put lots of chemicals in/on them and warehouse them for sale all year.

Peel them all!

[juliebove]

walnutty, I have noticed that some stores now put in fine print in the ads that these apples are a new crop - because some of us are learning how they somehow put lots of chemicals in/on them and warehouse them for sale all year.

Peel them all!

They've used the "New Crop" label since I was a kid, at least in WA state. We grow a lot of apples here. I can remember my mom telling my dad to check for the "New Crop" label in the fall because this time of year you can buy last year's apples as well as the new crop.

[luckitri]

Did they use all the chemicals in the warehouse or just temperature control or what? (Sorry, I never knew.)

[kaybee]

dunno if this is all true, but my dad said "ya know those sprayers that spray the water down over the veggies to keep them fresh at the supermarket?, thats not just water...." he said they put chemicals in it to help keep the veggies fresh longer...wouldnt suprise me since the stuff out of our garden only lasts a few days but the stuff in the stores has already been shipped across the country and looks "fresher" than the stuff fresh-picked out of our garden then taken to the farmers market... would be interesting for people to do a survey and ask their local grocery stores--and whole foods-- whats really in that stuff...on second thought, maybe if anyone on the board WORKS in a supermarket/wholefoods, they would be a better source....

kaybee

[ladypeace82]

anyone a chemist on this board? :)

[ski bumette]

I'm pretty lucky in that at this time of year dh and I can purchase apples right at the orchard in the town where mil lives. It's only an hour 15 min drive from us so from Sept to Dec we get fresh apples. The co-op where I buy now tries to buy as much produce from local growers so now is a great time for fruit and vegies. If I can't buy organic I buy BC grown if possible so that I know that it's not been in transit for weeks. I feel it's probably fresher and not sprayed with chemicals (hoping at least).

[walnutty]

So even though I purchase ALL organic produce, I may be eating wax and chemicals? This is OUTRAGEOUS!!! Organic apples are $4.00 a pound and the organic cucumbers are $2.00 each! That is so wrong!

[crystalmoon]

I dont think truly organic produce will keep fresh looking for weeks or that nature produces uniformly shaped items so I am always wary of the 'shiny' perfect looking supermarket labelled organic foods, especially if they have been shipped from miles away/across the globe. Alot of people I know have treated me like an obsessional 'freak' cos of this but having read these posts I am relieved that I've stuck to my local farmers box scheme fruit & veg with its mud & lumps & bumps!
I was going to make a special trip to visit the US Wholefoods market store in London but think I will save the £20 train fare & spend it on an extra box from the local farm. Eating locally produced in season produce does sometimes limit variety especially in this winter season but better to be safe than sorry!

[kaybee]

yeah, definitely agree with the "unnatural look" of even organic produce in stores...we are so used to everything being perfect in the stores... I just spent a good part of the last couple weeks picking veggies in my parents 5? acre garden for the farmers markets. its not all organic; dad uses a commercial fertilizer, one round of spray on the baby bean plants, but otherwise no chemical pesticides. I spent the better part of yesterday picking peppers, about 200 pounds of them. our peppers are totally unsprayed. alot of them are absolutely gorgeous, that "perfect pepper" shape that you see in the stores....but so many of them are not "perfect", it makes me wonder how they get all uniform ones for the stores...? or maybe they just chuck all the ones that arent that "perfect" shape. also, i wonder about how they get the red ones...and whats used on the organic red ones to keep them bug-free..... i guess they are grown somewhere where the season is longer than it is here, but the only time we get red peppers during the summer is if they get bugs in them. Now, at this time of year, because we didnt have an early frost, we were lucky enough to get loads of beautiful bug-free red ones, but during the summer, its hard to keep the bugs away from them; they like the red ones as much as we do... so yeah, i too wonder about those "perfectly shaped" fruits and veggies. and ESPECIALLY organic apples. how does whole foods get those beautiful, huge organic apples? they dont look very natural. also makes me wonder whats in organic pesticides. organic doesnt actually mean unsprayed, and in some cases i think it just means that they have to try other methods first and if the other methods dont work they can still resort to chemical sprays....

kb

[crystalmoon]

Kaybee Hi there, I hadnt really taken on board that organic doesnt mean unsprayed...this really has made me rethink my purchases & i have managed to find a local biodynamic farm that sells unsprayed crops. Thank you so much for helping me to 'get' the real picture