What to use to wash vegetables to remove pesticide residues

Vegetables are a kind of food that people often eat in daily life. Of course, in order to prevent vegetables from diseases and pests, many people will spray pesticides on vegetables. Therefore, before eating vegetables, you must use certain methods to wash the vegetables to remove pesticide residues and ensure your diet is healthy. So, what methods can be used to wash vegetables to effectively remove pesticide residues?

1. Salt water: can dissolve formaldehyde and pesticide residues

Dong Jinshi, Secretary General of the International Food Packaging Association, suggested that you can choose to use light salt water to wash vegetables. Regarding the concentration of the light salt water, it can be similar to the concentration of the light salt water we usually use for gargling. Regarding how long it takes to wash vegetables, Dong Jinshi said that you can soak them in light salt water for 3-5 minutes and then rinse them with clean water. Dong Jinshi explained that the reason why the method of washing vegetables with light salt water is worth recommending is that, first of all, compared with clean water, light salt water itself has a bactericidal effect.

In addition, light salt water has a greater solubility for formaldehyde and can dissolve any formaldehyde residues that may be present in vegetables. Dong Jinshi also said that in fact, not only vegetables, but also newly bought clothes can be soaked in light salt water to remove any formaldehyde residues that may be contained in them. Finally, some vegetables may contain pesticide residues. Soaking them in light salt water can also dissolve these substances and reduce the possible pesticide residues in the vegetables.

2. Rice water: better for washing vegetables after it is left for a certain period of time

"It is also advisable to use baking soda water or rice water to wash vegetables. This is because both baking soda water and rice water are alkaline, which can reduce the harmful substances in vegetables." However, as for the choice of rice water, Dong Jinshi suggested that the alkalinity of water that has just been used to wash rice is not very obvious, and the effect of washing vegetables will be better after fermentation. Therefore, if you want to wash vegetables, try not to use the rice water immediately. You can leave it for a while, because the rice water will ferment during the storage process, the viscosity will become higher and higher, and its alkalinity will also increase accordingly. In addition, rice water itself has a certain viscosity, which can absorb some pesticides and chemicals attached to the surface of food and remove vegetables. It is also effective for cleaning some fruits, including grapes, mulberries, strawberries and other fruits that are not easy to clean. It is also relatively safe to use rice water.

3. Flour water: inferior to rice water in decomposing pesticide residues

As for the claim that using flour water can remove pesticide residues from vegetables, Dong Jinshi said that using flour water to wash vegetables is also advisable, but it should be noted that compared with rice water, flour water has a slightly lower alkalinity and its ability to decompose pesticide residues will be slightly lower, especially for the decomposition of phosphorus-containing pesticides. Rice water can usually hydrolyze some phosphorus-containing pesticides and reduce their toxicity.