I recently read about the chemicals that can legally be applied to orange and lemon skins since they are deemed “inedible”. This is insane as not only do we use them for cooking but every cold drink in a restaurant or bar comes with a wedge of lemon of unknown origin. I cannot find the latest thing I read but here is an article form The Independent in the UK.
Orange peel gives zest to Christmas – spicing up festive fare from mince pies to mulled wine, brandy butter to the pudding itself. But official monitoring, published last week, shows that our seasonal sustenance also contains a hidden peril.
Checks by the Government Pesticides Residues Committee have found that every single orange examined was contaminated by pesticides.
Many of the chemicals found are suspected of causing cancer and “gender-bender effects”, about half are banned for use in Britain, and more than a third were found at levels above European or British danger limits.
Two of the pesticides – Carbofuran and Methidathion, banned in Britain – are classified by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as “highly hazardous”
click here for details: Oranges are not the safest fruit – they all exceed pesticide limits
