What is the wax on apples and cucumbers, and is it safe to eat?
By RIPE, checked against a produce manager's cues. Published .
It is safe. Apples make their own natural wax on the tree, most of it comes off during washing and packing, and a food-grade coating goes back on to slow water loss and stop the fruit shriveling. The coatings used are approved for food use and there is no need to peel anything because of them.
What to check
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Lookthis is why shine is such a weak signal on apples, peppers, cucumbers and citrus. A high gloss tells you about the coating and the polishing brushes, not about how fresh or ripe the item is.
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Wash under cold running water and rub with your hand or a brush. That is the recommended method and it is enough.
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Avoidsoap, detergent or bleach on produce. They are not meant to be eaten and produce can absorb them.
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Noteorganic produce can be coated too, using coatings permitted under organic rules. Uncoated does not mean better, it mostly means it will shrivel sooner.
Common mistaketreating a dull apple as old and a shiny one as fresh. It is often the reverse: an unwaxed apple from a farm stand looks matte and may be far fresher than the mirror-finish one in a supermarket bin.
Written by the team behind RIPE, a free app that reads a photo of the whole produce pile and rings the ripest ones. Every cue above is one you can check with your own hands, and it all works with no app at all.
You just read the cue for one piece. RIPE reads a photo of the entire display, draws numbered rings on the ones worth taking, and tells you why in the same plain words these guides use. Then it remembers what you brought home and nudges you before it turns.
It claims only what a camera can actually see. Every verdict ends by handing the last check back to your hands, which is the part these guides just taught you.
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