Ozone Cleaner?

[Spinal]

Some quick background - I'm allergic/sensitive so something used to grow or preserve fruits. More often than not, if I eat the skin of a waxed apple, (or pretty much any fruit that isn't grown in my garden) I end up with an itchy/allergic reaction on the back of my throat.

Usually, I can get around this by peeling the fruit, or washing it in absolutely scalding water (doesn't always work, and sometimes can't work for softer fruits).

While browsing the darker reaches of the net, I was looking at smaller ozone generators (which I was looking at for cleaning cars); when I stumbled across one designed to clean fruit and veg. The idea is that you put cold water, fruits & veg inside and it "ozonifies" the lot and washes the lot. From a bacterial perspective, it makes sense... but I'm not sure it'll do anything to whatever the fruits are coated with.

Any thoughts? I'm a bit skeptical... I thought ozone only affects organic cells?

M.

 

[whitenemesis]

Ozone will do nothing to the waxy coating on hard fruits. Sounds as if you'd be better off with a small steam cleaner? Even so, that wax layer is formulated to be very difficult to remove!

 

[Spinal]

Ozone will do nothing to the waxy coating on hard fruits. Sounds as if you'd be better off with a small steam cleaner? Even so, that wax layer is formulated to be very difficult to remove!

Just my thoughts - I was secretly hoping someone had tried them and they worked, but was very doubtful.

Oh well, back to peeling fruits

M.

 

[GordonTarling]

Can you not just buy 'Organic' fruit? None of that should be coated.

 

[abecketts]

organic fruit should be ok assuming its not been sprayed but "naturally" occuring products such as copper and sulphur can be used and will potentially be on the skin. If symptoms persist you might want to get the skins of the fruit analysed to see what is exactly on it and then work out what exactly gives you the allergic reaction.

 

[Spinal]

I may be wrong, but my understanding of organic isn't that they aren't sprayed, but that they aren't sprayed "preventatively". I.e. they wont put pesticide on them every x days like normal crops; but only if they see & identify a specific bug.

Am I wrong?

 

[swannymere]

A friend has a medium sized Fruit & Veg wholesale company, i'll ask him but your best bet is to find a local orchard where you can speak to the grower and buy direct, don't expect them to look perfect like supermarket produce but i'm 100% sure it will taste alot better.

 

[Spinal]

Had a look on wiki:Organic farming - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

basically, it seems that it's the origin of the pesticides used that makes them "organic"... my local PYO farm uses pesticides, I know they do as I can't eat one of their apples without peeling them. A shame too, as they're amazing apples!

m.

 

[abecketts]

I may be wrong, but my understanding of organic isn't that they aren't sprayed, but that they aren't sprayed "preventatively". I.e. they wont put pesticide on them every x days like normal crops; but only if they see & identify a specific bug. Am I wrong?

Organic produce can be sprayed using a range of products that are naturally occurring so you can't be certain of what could be on the skins the list or naturally occurring stuff is very long. You could plant your own apple trees and see if you get the allergic reaction. In vineyard terms I can spray copper 3 times a year but an organic vineyard can use copper up to 8 times in a year I would estimate orchards would be in a similar set up.

Paul

 

[Sp!ke]

I have been told that it is not uncommon for some farmers to sort ugly mis-shapen looking produce so they can sell it separately for more money under the guise of being organic.

The organic label guarantees very little imho.

 

[Spinal]

I've tried growing my own - I have some rather tasty plums in my garden... and hopefully this year kiwi (tons of flowers last year, but no fruit... I think I may not have a self fertile cultivar... so I've planted two more and hope than one will pollinate the other); no issues with these.

Oddly, I have very few issues when buying fruits from markets in southern France, Italy and Spain. It tends to be only supermarket and chain-bought fruits (even in Southern Europe), which really bugs me as it makes me feel like a fussy eater (and I'm not).

Paul - I seem to read from your statement that an organic vine can spray copper more than a non-organic one?!
M.

 

[grober]

Wax Coating Apple Fruits-Healthy or Unhealthy|Arimifoods
you could try vinegar soln ?