Apples

[Fiddle-Faddle]

I bought a bag of Jersey Macs today. I noticed that they were redder than usual (usually they have quite a bit of green on the outside as well as red), and when I sliced one open, the inside was screaming red in splotches--as though someone had dipped it in red ink and it had bled through.

The bag had a website listed--www.nyapplecountry.com--which is just the New York Apple Growers Association, didn't have any info at all.

Great. Now we have to be afraid of eating even fresh fruit that we can peel????

[KaitiUSA]

I would not be surprised if they put dye on them

[marciab]

I was wondering about this too. The rep at Publix (I emailed them earlier this year) told me that he only knows about them dyeing oranges at this point. I didn't ask which company because I can't eat citrus right now.

Scarey, huh ?

[Turtle]

[lonewolf]

Don't be so sure they are dying them. We have 6 apple trees and two of the red varieties "bleed" red color into the white part when we cut them. I can assure you that we DONT put any dye on them. Macintosh (I'm guessing this is what a "Jersey Mac" is) can do that too.

[Fiddle-Faddle]

Don't be so sure they are dying them. We have 6 apple trees and two of the red varieties "bleed" red color into the white part when we cut them. I can assure you that we DONT put any dye on them. Macintosh (I'm guessing this is what a "Jersey Mac" is) can do that too.

I've seen them that way, too, but the "bleeding" was just a tiny bit of red on the white flesh near the skin. This was candy-apple red and it went all the way to the core. I've never seen that kind of red on an apple before, only in lipsticks!

[gfp]

I can't say about the US but my ex works for a food analysis lab.

90% of UK fruit is over a year old. It costs a lot less to distribute.

Apples are usually treated with a layer of chitin (insect protein) and irradiated then put into a bio-clean cold storage.

but are one of the trickier fruits to store... the goal of all cold storge is to make the fruit last over a year so it can be sold as Fresh when people thing its the season...

Can I suggest

Open Original Shared Link

Open Original Shared Link

Anyway, the reason for dying the apples is due to loosing color in storage.

[Guest Viola]

We have several apple trees in our orchard and two trees have apples with very bright red streaks through them. They are very old trees, I don't know the name of them as they were here before we arrived (30 years ago). But one is so red inside that it turns all the apple juice bright pink when we juice them. They are also very sweet.

People with digestive problems quite frequently have trouble digesting apples, so I wouldn't be too hasty in thinking that your apples are being dyed and there fore contaminated. It's very unlikely!

[KaitiUSA]

I heard that they inject the fruits with some sort of chemical ...I don't know if that is true but I have read that in a few books. They also irradiate them which is basically is like processing and radiating your fruits. I think thats just wrong.

[gfp]

I heard that they inject the fruits with some sort of chemical ...I don't know if that is true but I have read that in a few books. They also irradiate them which is basically is like processing and radiating your fruits. I think thats just wrong.

Try the links above.....

btw this is an advert ....by the research to do this

EFFECT OF DIFFERENT CO2 AND O2 CONCENTRATIONS IN THE STORAGE OF ‘CONFERENCE’ PEARS ON THE RATE OF DECREASES IN FIRMNESS DURING RIPENING

Authors: J. Blaszczyk, J.M. Ben

Keywords: pears, acids, CA store, cold store, firmness, ripening, soluble solids

Abstract:

‘Conference’ pears were stored for 120, 150, 180, and 210 days in a standard cold store at 0°C and in a CA store. Ripening was conducted for 6 days at a constant temperature of 18°C or 10°C for the first 3 days and at 20°C for the subsequent 3 days. Pears from the standard cold store and from CA containing 0 % CO2 + 2 % O2 and ripened at 10°C, acquired the acceptable ripeness after 3 and 4 days, respectively. Pears from CA storage of 2 % CO2 + 2 % O2 or 3 % CO2 + 5 % O2 and ripened at the same temperature preserved the firmness within 1.5 – 2.0 kG. Lower ripening temperatures slowed firmness losses and metabolic changes, permitting a considerable extension of the marketing period.

[pixiegirl]

I'm not sure I'm buying that apples are dyed.... I go to a u-Pick orchard that is all organic and the apple flesh is often stained red and I know these are not dyed.

However, I buy organic everything more often then not, yes its more expensive and I just buy less but at least its more healthy, which is my goal.

Susan

[Ursa Major]

When I was a kid in Germany (not long after the war), we were too poor to buy fruit most of the time. In the fall, some older people in the community who had apple trees, but couldn't keep up with picking them up before they would rot after falling off the tree, would call and had my brothers, sister and me pick up the apples to take home.

I remember that we used to get apples that had a lot of red in them, and they were our favourites, because they were so sweet. There is obviously no way they were dyed!

So, while it is possible that your apples were dyed, it is also possible that that's just the way they grew. In order not to get too paranoid, I'd just presume they grew that way, since I've seen apples that do that.

[Nantzie]

I'm stunned gfp!!!

Who would have ever thought...

But then, who would have ever thought gluten would cause so many health issues.

Just another thing to add to the list.

Nancy

[penguin]

Couldn't I just take some sort of nutritionally complete super pill instead of eating?

[jerseyangel]

Couldn't I just take some sort of nutritionally complete super pill instead of eating?

I've been wishing that for some time, now...

[Ursa Major]

Couldn't I just take some sort of nutritionally complete super pill instead of eating?

Well, that would assume that we're all the same, with the same nutritional needs, and it would make some people be well, and others sick. It wouldn't be an improvement, especially because nobody has figured out exactly what we need yet (and I doubt they ever will, as human bodies are too complex).

[queenofhearts]

Couldn't I just take some sort of nutritionally complete super pill instead of eating?

What kind of comment is that coming from a foodie!!??? Has WW driven you mad?

Granted, sometimes it might be handy...

[penguin]

What kind of comment is that coming from a foodie!!??? Has WW driven you mad?

Granted, sometimes it might be handy...

Just because I like cooking food doesn't mean I have to eat it!

Besides, by the time I'm done cooking half the time, I don't want to have any of it anyway

My mourning for the loss of wheat was because I wouldn't be able to bake anymore (got over that), not because I couldn't eat it.

[gfp]

I'm stunned gfp!!!

Who would have ever thought...

But then, who would have ever thought gluten would cause so many health issues.

Just another thing to add to the list.

Nancy

I was pretty amazed myself...

My ex-wife works for a food testing lab and one day I had to drop her car off for a service so I drove her to work as well, except she had to pick up samples of testing on the way.

We stopped at the "warehouse" which even to me having worked in a lot of labs looked like something from science fiction. Multiple airtight door and postive air pressure .. reduced oxygen and complete sterility...like something from NASA plus....

So when she got back to the car I asked...

I was pretty stunned.... when she said nearly all the fruit in supermarkets is stored this way.

I just found the first link I could.... but its pretty weird isn't it?

Its like we all think its "fresh" and don't really think where it comes from or where its stored .. and yet hundreds or thousands of people know but noone thinks to say ???

I noticed a few peple disregarded the post ....and its really like celiac...when you tell people they are "yeah sure" ..."how's the weather?" as if you just told them to wear tinfoil hats against aliens stealing your thoughts.

[Guest Viola]

Okay ... Lets have a look at food ... really... if you want to go completely organic, be prepared to wash everything very well. That includes cantaloupe or honey dew, watermellon etc before you cut it. Most organic foods are fertilized with "natural" manures. Natural manures can and often do contain ecoli. If you don't go organic, you need to wash things very well because of pestisides, and ecoli free, but chemical made fertilizers. Lets see ... that means we get to chose natural, and possibly dangerous bacteria, or not so natural and possibly dangerous chemicals. Keep in mind that all things natural are not safe either. Make cherry leaf tea, and you have cyanide. Eat too many apple seeds, peach seeds, or plum seeds and you can do yourself some serious harm. And really ... it's natural

In my opinion there is no garenteed safe food, even if you pick it up natural on top of a mountain, such as blueberries ... ah yes, wild animals carry gyardia (sp) etc. as well and are not fussy where they dump. Fresh water out of a mountain stream .. nope, gotta boil it.

Okay, my point is, yes, we have to be extremely careful of gluten containing foods, some of dairy, nuts etc. Our diets are extremely limited by disease and allergys ... should we be scaring the hell out of ourselves about such things as wax on apples, (I've been around many orchards and fruit storage, and have never heard of them being injected with dyes), and whether or not it's oraganic.

Okay, excuse the sarcastic part of me. I'm just all for using some common sense here.

[penguin]

I noticed a few peple disregarded the post ....and its really like celiac...when you tell people they are "yeah sure" ..."how's the weather?" as if you just told them to wear tinfoil hats against aliens stealing your thoughts.

Personally, when I saw that I stuck my fingers in my ears and shouted "LALALALALALALALAIcan'thearyouLALALALALALA"

and, unfortunately, I already knew they did that for a lot of produce, like apples.

...and then thought about the hours of Saturday's farmer's market

[pixiegirl]

Well I do wash all my produce very well, I just happen to think that organic is better then chemicals. They know for a fact that many pesticides can damage your DNA, I don't think that is true with manure related fertilizers.

But yes with just about anything you can find something wrong with it too much sun you get cancer, too much water you drown.... I think regardless of which you eat you should wash them all with care. They are all touched by people (kids) at the grocery store, some fall on the floor, etc. I don't know of anyone that picks them up and just eats them!

I'm only speaking for myself, but finding out about things like wax or manure doesn't scare the hell out of me, it just makes me handle them or prepare them differently, not only am I concerned with gluten-free and my food allergies but good health in general.

I guess I don't scare very easily.

Susan

[gfp]

Well I do wash all my produce very well, I just happen to think that organic is better then chemicals. They know for a fact that many pesticides can damage your DNA, I don't think that is true with manure related fertilizers.

This is pretty much my view. Besides a little e. coli is not such a bad thing every so often. The worst I ever had was in Africa when I had typhoid ... yep it sure sucks but I did get over it and that is almost as extreme a form of food poisioning as you can get.

But yes with just about anything you can find something wrong with it too much sun you get cancer, too much water you drown.... I think regardless of which you eat you should wash them all with care. They are all touched by people (kids) at the grocery store, some fall on the floor, etc. I don't know of anyone that picks them up and just eats them!

Yeah I know.... its weird you see people avoiding the potato that got dropped...its a potato... it was covered in earth and has been rolled around warehouses and wherever... get over it and wash it before you eat it!

I'm only speaking for myself, but finding out about things like wax or manure doesn't scare the hell out of me, it just makes me handle them or prepare them differently, not only am I concerned with gluten-free and my food allergies but good health in general.

I guess I don't scare very easily.

Em true but I do find it disturbing they add candida to citrus fruits (to fight bacteria) and a few other really noixious things.

Back in the 1960's polititians were eating DDT in chunks to prove its safety.... now we know better.

Susan

[Guest Viola]

The point I was trying to make is that so many newbies come on here overwhelmed with checking for gluten...I believe that's what the thread started out to be...that we should not be injecting so much fear about how fruit and veggies are stored.

Yes, we all, or I'm sure most of us wash everything excessively to avoid contamination. But for a gluten free diet fruit and veggies are a main stay. Let's encourage the use of them, normal, or organic which ever they can afford, all can be safe.

[hineini]

Having grown up in NY apple country I can tell you that it is totally normal for certain apples to have pinkish or reddish tint on the flesh even after you peel them - What looks like dye that's bled through is just pigment.

That's not to say that there aren't apples that are died (I wouldn't be surprised if there were). But I wouldn't assume that's the case.

Just my $.02