While the "Poisonous Garlic" incident has attracted people's attention, people are also trying to find out how to visually identify the methods of contaminated fruits and vegetables.
Professor Li Lite, a doctoral tutor of the Food College of China Agricultural University, said that it is impossible to discern whether pesticides exceed the standard in the appearance and color of vegetables. To reduce the health risks of fruits and vegetables, it is necessary to understand which vegetables and fruits are easier to understand. Contaminated.
Professor Li said that in general, fruits and vegetables that are more susceptible to pests and insects are more difficult to control. They are often species with relatively serious pesticide pollution. Fruits such as apples, pears, plums, grapes, strawberries, watermelons, oranges, bananas and other pesticide residues are more serious, and shelled fruits such as litchi, longan and other pollution less. Heavily polluted vegetables include leafy vegetables and fine vegetables such as cabbage, vegetables, chicken feathers, leeks, spinach, and rapeseed, while root vegetables, vegetables, and fruit vegetables (such as potatoes, pumpkin, cucumber, bitter gourd, tomatoes, and melons) Onions, etc.) are relatively less polluted by pesticides, and these vegetables also have higher nutrient content.
Regarding the statement that “there are no pesticides for buying vegetables and eating insectsâ€, Prof. Li thinks there is no scientific reason. Because it is difficult for the vegetable farmers to kill all the pests at the same time during spraying, the insects will develop drug resistance when they take a long time. When the vegetable farmers re-spray, they will flee, and then the “kill will come backâ€. Therefore, there are no pesticide residues left on the vegetables. Moreover, the vegetable skin has a layer of wax that can prevent pests and toxic substances from invading. Once the vegetable epidermis is damaged, pathogenic microorganisms such as various bacteria will take advantage of it, which is detrimental to human health.
As far as small tomatoes and big tomatoes are concerned, Professor Li said in a humorous way that small tomatoes are produced by foreigners in order to pay attention to eating. If we do not pay attention to eating at home, it is best to choose big tomatoes. Because the same weight of small tomatoes is much larger than the surface area of ​​large tomatoes, so the area to receive pesticide sprays is also large, and small tomatoes of the same flesh weight, due to their proportion of peel, much more than large tomatoes, nutrition Less than a big tomato.
In addition, the effective method of cleaning fruits and vegetables can also reduce the pollution of pesticides.
Professor He Jiguo of the College of Food Science and Technology at China Agricultural University believes that the cleaning methods for different fruits and vegetables are strictly different. Such as cleaning eggplant, green peppers and fruits, etc., people are used to gently clean the surface by hand, although this can remove some of the pesticides, but at the same time the surface of the natural wax removed, if you then soaked in water for a long time, It is easy for residual pesticides to infiltrate into the interior of vegetables or fruits. Therefore, fruits and vegetables such as eggplants, apples, grapes, and strawberries are best washed with running water and cleaned with special cleaning agents. The leafy vegetables, because the leaves are not easy to wash by hand, the wax on the surface has not been removed, it played a role in isolation, pesticides are not easy to infiltrate, so direct soaking of leafy vegetables can reduce The role of pesticide residues.