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Apeel is approved in Australia for use on all fruits and vegetables and there are no labelling laws. What is Apeel?
The product Apeel is yet another example of stupidity when it comes to the goodness of organic, regeneratively grown fruits and vegetables.
The media shows it as preserving food and reducing food waste, hunger of communities and saving humanity, but I see it as another chemical being sprayed on food for financial gains.
The marketing for this product describes Apeel as simply another layer of what already exists naturally on fruits and vegetables but when we look deeper, the marketing isn’t exactly telling the whole truth.
Instead of empowering people to have fruit trees in their yards and nature strips, this is yet another attempt to stop the natural ripening, progression, and spoilage of food. There is no long-term safety studies on what it may do to the health of the gut microbiome, the gut integrity and soil ecology.
What is Apeel or Organipeel (the organic version)?
Apeel is the company and the name of the product that is making a coating for fruits and vegetables that is meant to extend the shelf life of the food. The company was funded by The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and founded by World Economic Forum Young Leader James Rogers.
Australia’s FSANZ have approved the coating as has the US FDA for all fruits and vegetables. In the USA, it will have to labelled but there seems to be no labelling laws happening in Australia or if there are, it is a state-by-state basis. Even if the food that has been treated is labelled, I’m concerned about restaurants, cafes and food processors using these coated fruits and vegetables but not having to declare anything on the menu/label.
The EU have allowed this product on citrus, avocado, pineapple, papaya, banana, mango, melon and pomegranate. In other words, for foods where you will remove the skin and therefore do not eat the coating. Whereas in other countries like Australia, and the USA it is allowed on all fruits and vegetables. This coating cannot be washed off.
I asked FSANZ for clarification of the approval here is their letter to me.
Hi Cyndi
Your enquiry regarding approval for mono and diglycerides (Apeel application) on coatings on all fruits and vegetables has come through to me.
The amendments resulting from Apeel’s application (application A1191) were approved on 3 Feb 2021 and have been in effect from 22 April 2021. The changes were made to Schedule 15-5 of the Code. You can access Schedule 15 via our website.
You may wish to have a look at the A1191 approval report for details on labelling. If you require further advice on labelling and meeting Code requirements, I would suggest contacting your relevant State or Territory enforcement agency, we cannot provide this advice.
I then asked for clarification on labelling:
The labelling requirements are found in Part 1.2 of the Food Standards Code, Labelling and Other Information Requirements. You do need to be aware of and understand these requirements for making and selling food in Australia and NZ.
https://www.foodstandards.govt.nz/code/Pages/default.aspx
In other words no labelling laws required.
It’s very much like when you read an ingredient label, there is no sign of any of the chemicals on the label that were used in the growing process such as glyphosate, paraquat, chlorpyrifos, atrazine but it is inevitable that these chemicals will be in some parts per million or billion in the food.
Another example of this, is the process that is done to lettuce, greens, cut fruits and vegetables where you will not see the ingredient – natureseal on the list as it is a process not an ingredient. I write about Natureseal in my book Lab to Table.
Let’s take a popular apple cider vinegar that has been purchased by a famous singer and her husband who also have ties with Bill and Melinda Gates. If they are using the apples sprayed with Apeel to make the apple cider vinegar, what are the additional contaminants now added into the product. To make sure, I will be purchasing my local Hilbilby Fire Tonic over any other apple cider vinegar product moving forward.
The Two Stages of Apeel
Apeel is applied in two stages;
Stage 1- Before harvest it’s called invisipeel, it has pesticidal, fungicidal and preservative qualities.
Stage 2 – After harvest called Edipeel, it is a physical barrier
Together they are called Apeel, it can only be applied by an apeel scientist, or someone trained by the scientist. It cannot be washed off. Here is an old screen shot from the Apeel website:
They have stated that they only use food ingredients but as you will see below, most of these ingredients cannot be found in a pantry! Well maybe salt, however I would never use a refined salt and definitely not vegetable oil that has been turned into glycerides using solvents, heavy metals and trans fats.
Here are the Ingredients.
Glycerolipids (vegetable oils) mono and di glycerides, esters amides, thiols, carboxylic acids, ethers, aliphalic waxes, alcohols, salts (inorganic and organic) alkenyl groups including propenyl, n-butenyl, in cis and trans bonds (in other words trans fats)
The Organic Apeel contains 0.6% citric acid and 99.4% other ingredients but I can’t find clarification of the other 99.4% of ingredients.
Let’s take a closer look at the ingredients.
All of the ingredients are GRAS (generally regarded as safe), each has been tested individually but not tested in conjunction with each other.
The patent for making the glycerol which is just one of the ingredients is seen in the screen shot below.
Heptane or ethyl acetate may be used interchangeably as the solvent, here is the safety data sheet.
Questions to ask
Who is making the chemicals/ingredients
My conclusion
I’m grateful for the stores who have decided to not purchase produce coated in Apeel, I know that Costco USA have declared they will not purchase fresh produce coated in Apeel and I’m hoping Australian Costco will follow.
I’m not sure if the processing with Apeel has started in Australia but to be safe, purchase your fruit and vegetables from your local farmers market. Ask questions of your local IGA store to make sure they are not buying products laced in Apeel.
Please see the references below so that you can also research this yourself and stay tuned for further updates from me as I receive them.
Cyndi
Refrences
Microsoft Word – A1191 Approval Report post Board (foodstandards.gov.au)
https://patents.justia.com/patent/11447646
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Suzanne Vasanji says:
The reason I looked this up is because I was looking through a fairly local organic grower of fruit and vegetables in S Australia. Among their list of potatoes was the nice pink potatoes which had a lovely peel and they then used the word A-peel to state how appealing they were. It then went onto say there was a lovely aspect to them as they would last longer even when cut. That drew my attention as I’d already heard about the product Apeel and Bill and Melinda Gates association. I wondered if an organic farm would introduce this to one type of vegetable over another as it was not mentioned on the others they had. I decided to see if I could find how it’s being used in Australia and came across your article. It is one scary thing to think of eating food that has been sprayed with this stuff and not know what harm it is doing to your microbiome. As far as I know the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation and the WEF have never done anything to benefit the populations though they try to make out that that’s what they are doing. We have I think seen otherwise. If I were to consider buying from this farm which looks good I would of course ask them about the Apeel.
Moira McFarlane says:
Unfortunately some vendors at Farmers markets are not true off the farm vendors. Some are buying 2nd 3rd grade at the wholesale market and even buying from spud shed and passing the product off as “off the farm”. Most fruit and veg vendors are honest I think but point is how do know what you are really buying. People are entitled to make the decision on what they put in their body treated or untreated. But can I find a list of where to buy untreated fruit and veg is next to on impossible. Do you have an answer? Please don’t say grow your own.i just want to be able to choose that is my right as an Australian. Thank you.
Alison says:
WOW!! I cured my 24/7 chronic back pain by ditching packaged / processed foods due to additives, this looks like a continuation of a nightmare i just woke from