How to identify vegetables and fruits sprayed with chemicals

Identifying safe vegetables is an extremely important part of modern life. Vegetables are an indispensable part of meals, while products contaminated with pesticides, chemical fertilizers, or stimulants... are flooding the market.

In addition to the skill of choosing good vegetables, the top concern of market goers is to identify vegetables sprayed with chemicals so they can stay away from them. This is not easy.

How to identify vegetables sprayed with chemicals

Below are some types of vegetables and fruits that are at high risk of being sprayed with chemicals and how to identify and distinguish them, according toQuestion and Answer Document on Nutrition and Food Safetyof the Institute of Nutrition.

Cabbage

When grown in the ground, vegetables attract many insects, so growers often increase the use of pesticides and nitrogen fertilizers before harvest. If sprayed close to harvest, the residue of fertilizers and pesticides in vegetables will still be very high when they reach consumers because the chemicals do not have enough time to decompose.

You should be suspicious when you see bunches of young, lush green vegetables with no signs of insects, and unusually firm and even stems. These are usually vegetables that have been fertilized with a lot of nitrate nitrogen and should not be eaten, especially not raw.

Bean sprouts

Bean sprouts that are plump and round, with white stems and few roots are often very attractive and delicious. However, they are likely to have been treated with toxic growth stimulants during the production process.

To make bean sprouts big and plump, when the beans sprout, many people use foliar fertilizer mixed with diluted pesticide to water the sprouts and then cover them tightly. This mixture helps the bean sprouts germinate and grow quickly, but is very toxic. When stir-fried, this type of bean sprouts will secrete a cloudy liquid.

Green beans

If growers overuse foliar fertilizers, the green beans will often be shiny, hairless, long, and have distinct segments. If the entire bean crop on sale has no signs of insects, it means the first garden was sprayed with pesticides before harvest.

Water celery

Signs of vegetables sprayed with chemicals for this product include: Large stems, unusually white shoots. Bundles of watercress sprayed with too much pesticide and fertilizer will dry up and shrivel if left without water for a day.

Bitter melon

When buying bitter melon, you should choose small, long ones with many tiny veins on the body. Large, dark green, smooth bitter melons with bulging bodies but shiny veins are often overused with chemicals to keep them fresh.

Tips to reduce chemicals in vegetables

For vegetables with stems such as mustard greens, Chinese cabbage, cabbage, etc., to eliminate toxic chemicals, after purchasing, you can apply the following tips:

- Cut off the base, separate each leaf, and pick out damaged leaves.

- Soak vegetables in diluted salt water or diluted potassium permanganate solution for about 15 minutes.

- Rinse each leaf thoroughly under running water several times before continuing processing.

According toQuestion and Answer Document on Nutrition and Food SafetyAccording to the Institute of Nutrition, the above method is simple but can clean most of the pesticides and fertilizers on vegetables, especially in the leaf crevices. This method also helps remove worm eggs, parasites and other dirt on vegetables.