Apeel Asda guinea pigs

Food & Drink Food & Drink: In The News
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“Asda began its partnership with Apeel in 2019 with a small trial at select locations, then expanded to 150 stores throughout the United Kingdom. In addition to reaching its food waste reduction goals, the grocer also saw positive customer sentiment regarding its sustainability. Some 70% of shoppers said Apeel made them “believe Asda cares about reducing food waste” and 57% said Apeel “makes (them) believe Asda is a champion for sustainability.””

This is all over Twitter. I am trying to work out why we are not being informed of such a change in our fresh fruit and veg?

Backed by Bill Gates

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That’s what I call a REALLY GOOD IDEA … :astonished:

You can eat the (invisible) wrapping … :open_mouth:

Apeel is inspired by nature’s own technology: from oranges to raspberries, every plant on Earth has a peel or skin that protects it. It’s these edible materials found in the skins, peels, and seeds of plants that enable Apeel to keep produce fresh 2x as long.

From these sustainable, plant-based materials, Apeel adds a little extra peel on produce to slow the rate of water loss and oxidation — the primary causes of spoilage. That extra peel is completely edible, tasteless, and safe to eat. A variety of plant feedstocks can be used to create our formulations, and luckily these ingredients exist in the peels, seeds, and pulp of all fruits and vegetables, in literally every bite of fruit we take. We think of these materials as building blocks, restructuring them in a way that allows us to iterate on what nature created, making our solution into a coating that can be applied to produce. So while nature is our foundation and inspiration, innovation and technology are how we apply those ingredients—it’s the best of both worlds, really.

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It seems it was in the news, has been in the news since 2012 but only now launched on unsuspecting shoppers. Apparently this stuff doesn’t wash off. Trusting some obscure business with our fruit and veg. Why haven’t we been informed or consulted?

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Sounds a bit fishy to me - did a quick search and none of the sites list the chemical composition of the sprays or how they’re actually made :confused:

‘Wax’ on Apple and other things like cucumber are ‘edible’, but I still would’t want to eat it:

Wax coating plays with the quality of apples you eat. One of the effects it has is called anaerobic respiration that can occur in the fruits since the wax can act as an oxygen barrier. It can be used to disguise the quality of apples. Waxed apples may look glossy, shiny and firm, but they could be soggy and tasteless instead.

They can also play havoc with your digestive system. According to Nutritionist Dr. Anju Sood, “The natural wax present in apples is easily digestible and does no harm to the body. On the other hand, wax coating is done to preserve apples for as long as they can. The wax used may not be easily absorbed by the body and can be harmful for the colon or the small intestine.”

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I’m concerned not about oranges and easy peelers at Tesco, but lemons. They are adding to lemons and you can’t wash off. As I like to use grated lemon rind, I am disappointed.

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You can peel them, but what if this new stuff seeps inside?

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Apeel says:

Apeel protection is plant-derived, so you can juice, zest, squeeze, or slice your lemons just how you like them. It’s freshness you can see and feel.

Apeel-Protected Lemons stay juicy and fresh for longer than unprotected lemons. Lemons protected by Apeel feel firmer and retain their vibrant color, which are two of the essential indicators of freshness.

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Omah I don’t trust information from the producer. There’s not much in the way of independent scientific information out there about a product that has been sprayed onto fruit and veg in two of our most popular supermarkets. Bad enough that our shelves are empty, when you try to buy something that you think is safe because it’s not processed, you find out that is a bit of a joke.

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Well, independent scientists will now be able to conduct their own tests … :+1:

(as long as they don’t mind shopping at ASDA … :wink:)

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An article on the science of Apeel. They use lipids to coat the exterior which is unlike wax. Pretty interesting how it works. The lipids are created from other produce that have better protective barriers.

It’s not a panacea for rotting produce because careful handling is still required not to puncture the outer layer but it can add some shelf life of produce if handled carefully.

I could only find one negative hit for the health drawbacks but it was a blog requiring membership. I’ll post if I find more.

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wondering whether the EU has embraced this with the same enthusiasm

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Well, that’s horrific

From their own website:

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I don’t want my food coated with a chemical I can’t wash off, even if the manufacturers say it’s safe

Manufacturers have been known to lie, and they can’t know the long term affects of eating this stuff

So, it’s made from fruit and vegetables, exactly how are these fruit and vegetables grown? Are they grown organically? I doubt it. More likely with chemical fertilisers and pesticides that they are now going to concentrate and spray on my food in a solution I can’t wash off

So buying organic isn’t a guarantee :rage:

They say all foods coated with it will be labelled but can we trust them? And can we trust our own government who want to reduce food labelling to appease US food producers

It looks as if some of the brands to avoid if you don’t want to consume Apeel are AM Fresh Group, Alben Fruit, Nature’s Pride, Worldwide Fruit, Eatme and Robinson’s Freshbut that’s not going to be an exhaustive list and I don’t trust it will be properly labelled

It’s not just Asdas, Tescos are having a go to

I think we’re being conned into accepting this new food additive without questioning by them boasting it’s “green” credentials, less waste, less plastic etc

But if food looks the same for ages, and doesn’t go off, how do we know how fresh it is?

Even if it looks good, fruit and veg lose their vitamins and nutritional value as they get older, so if they use this to sell us ancient fruit and veg, we’ll just be eating nutritionally valueless, but attractive looking, mush :rage:

Good article here:

I’m off to check my Tescos lemons!

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All good points … :+1:

Krysten’s Kitchen, however, appears to be a personal blog written by someone without specified qualifications - a self-described San Francisco “foodie” who radically modified her diet to address her “health issues” and who appears to have numerous axes to grind, including:

Apparently Beaver Buttholes Taste Like Vanilla

Why I Avoid Touching Receipts, Aluminum Foil & Table Salt

You Can Either Make Time For Your Wellness or Your Illness

:man_shrugging:

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Yup, our Krysten may well be a bit of a fruitcake, but she makes some good points

There are much more fruitcakier than her about :rofl:

Some conspiracy theorists think Apeel, which won’t wash off, will be used by governments and big business to deliver medicines, hormones etc to the population without them knowing …….

In particular, that Bill Gates plans to use it to fulfill his dream of getting everyone vaccinated :scream:

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that was one of the issues many have with this

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Our Krysten? You know her?

From her post, her two points are that the food may lose nutritional value and that it won’t be organic. Both those things can be tested for. If enough people are concerned, it should be an easy test.

One of the points in the Wired article is that anything any distance from the source of where it’s grown is going to have loss of nutritional value and freshness. If people want the freshest possible, then going to local growers is the way to go. Depending on where you live, much of the produce in a supermarket could have traveled a long way or been in storage a long time.

In the US, apples could be in storage for a year before the consumer gets them. I’d be surprised if it was much different in the UK where most of the produce doesn’t seem to be locally grown.

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it’s not that it isn’t a great idea Butterscotch, it’s that we haven’t been told they are doing this. It’s been very quiet in the media and nothing about the research and testing as to whether there is long term safety. It’s like chlorinated chicken. Consumers have a right to know how food is fiddled.

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AFAIK, the same is true in the UK:

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no wonder fruit and veg tastes so much better in rural Italy and France. We have to pay through the nose here or grow our own. I’ve only managed to grow a couple of lemons but they were absolutely divine and so different from those in the supermarket. I guess it’s a case of quantity over quality here.

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