Published August 5th, 2024.

A baking soda solution can remove pesticides from fruit and vegetables.

Baking soda diluted in water is an effective way to remove specific classes of acidic pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides from produce. Since the chemical compounds are not stable in a basic solution, the baking soda increases their solubility and breaks them down. Baking soda diluted in water is more effective than water alone, clorox, and vinegar.

Baking soda can significantly reduce concentrations of the following chemicals sprayed onto produce including:

• Organophosphate pesticides like azamethiphos, chlorpyrifos, diazinon, dichlorvos, phosmet, fenitrothion, tetrachlorvinphos, azinphos-methyl, malathion, methyl parathion, and parathion.
• Phosphonate herbicides like glyphosate.
• Carbamate insecticides like aldicarb, carbaryl, oxamyl, carbofuran, thiodicarb,
  methomyl, and propoxur.
• Benzimidazole fungicides like benomyl, carbendazim, and fuberidazole, and thiabendazole.

Instructions: mix at least one teaspoon of baking soda with two cups of water and let the fruit sit for 12-15 minutes. You could add more baking soda to increase the effectiveness. Then give the produce a quick rinse and drain the water. While this can remove between 60-99% of the pesticides from the outside of the fruit, trace concentrations of systematic chemicals like the fungicide benzimidazole can persist in the flesh of the fruit.

That’s why it is advisable to get organic where only natural pesticides can be used for produce like:

• berries
• cherries
• peaches
• leafy greens
• nectarines
• grapes
• apples
• beans
• peppers
• tomatoes
• pears
• celery

A 2017 study done by Dr. Lili He at UMass was the first piece of research that found baking soda to be effective at removing the aforementioned chemical pesticides. Her team treated apples with a pesticide and fungicide and then compared the effectiveness of baking soda solution, tap water, and bleach at removing the chemicals. Baking soda complete removed the chemicals from the outside of the fruit. She noted that 4% of the applied phosmet concentration and 20% of the applied thiabendazole concentrations penetrated into the flesh and persisted. I found another study which discovered that soaking produce in a 1-3% baking soda to water solution for 8-12 minutes significantly reduced pesticide concentrations.

If you are curious to put it to the test, you can get pesticide test strips and try the baking soda solution on your produce.