Now I’ve heard of everything! Well, I am sure I haven’t, but today, I read about dissolving fruit stickers. You know those pesky little stickers that appear on fruit to tell you what kind it is and give the number for the cashier to ring up. I always seem to have a hard time removing them, especially from peaches, without tearing the fruit up.
Scott Amron didn’t really like the fruit stickers either, so he decided to do something about it. But, Amron went further than just getting rid of the stickers; he tried to make eating the fruit itself healthier.
Amron, a designer and engineer who also created the Brush & Rinse toothbrush, thought it would be great if the sticker served some purpose other than to just to be thrown away after purchase. So, he created the Fruitwash sticker.
Amron’s Fruitwash sticker turns to soap when placed under running water, not only removing dirt, but also pesticides and wax from the fruit. This method also gets rid of sticker waste. Okay, granted the waste from those tiny stickers probably isn’t very much, but I guess every little bit helps.
Amron won’t reveal what Fruitwash stickers are made of, but he assures us it is all organic ingredients.
While this idea is super cool, food safety experts say it is unnecessary. Simply cleaning the fruit with water will do as good as Fruitwash or any fruit and vegetable wash on the market today. Researcher Sandria Godwin at the Institute of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences at Tennessee State University tested other washes and said findings didn’t show they did any better than water. When asked by NPR about Fruitwash, she said she still thought water worked best, but did like the fact that there is less waste with these stickers.
I still might try some of Amron’s Fruitwash, just to see how it works, but until this shows up in your market, be sure to wash fruit and vegetables as well as washing cutting boards and utensils well to keep bacteria at bay.