Apply wax and remove wax. Apply wax again.
You may have noticed that when you put a knife into a store-bought apple, the wax scrapes off. kate thornton (@apple.girl.kait), a Washington state apple and pear farmer, promises this is not an unhealthy additive.
“There's a lot of fear-mongering reporting about food and where our food comes from. I don't want people to be scared about what they put in their bodies, especially if it's something like an apple. “When it comes to superfoods,'' she said.
Thronton is a fourth-generation farmer and runs the 440-acre Thronton Family Farms in Tonasket, Wash., with his father, Jeff.
In a viral video that has racked up 5.3 million views, she details how the apple wax deal works, explaining a process she says dates back to the 1920s.
First, she showed off two apples from her farm. The first one comes directly from the tree on the left and looks healthy, but not very pretty or shiny. It is covered with clay that protects it from the sun.
On the right is an apple that has undergone a cleaning process and is perfectly shiny and bright. But when Thornton ran the knife, wax shavings came off.
“You may be shocked to find out that store-bought apples have wax on them, but tell me about fresh-from-the-tree apples,” she said.
Then she picked up a not-so-pretty apple and rubbed it off as well. Then the wax fell off from there as well. That wax is the apple's cuticle, a naturally occurring protective layer found in many fruits and vegetables.
“Apples produce natural waxes on their surface that help retain moisture and prevent wrinkles,” she explained. “It also looks very attractive to any species that might want to eat it. And that's very important for the overall health of the apple.”
When these apples are sent for cleaning to be sold, all the dirt and chemicals are washed away, but so are the natural waxes.
Finally, a new food-grade wax is added to repair the apple's protective layer, preventing it from rotting quickly, becoming infected with fungi, and losing nutrients.
Thornton listed three of the most common waxes used to replace the natural cuticle of apples. They are beeswax, carnauba wax from the leaves of the carnauba palm tree, and shellac, a resin secreted by the lac insect.
The farmer's educational video is clearly an eye-opener for viewers, joking that apples have “skin care” benefits and that they “produce that wax, in part, to make us look beautiful.” Some people said.
“Thank you as a dietitian who actively fights food fear mongering,” one commenter wrote.
Another person, who plans to show the video to her father, wrote: “My father is going through a phase where he thinks all the produce in the store is poisonous and GMO.”
“I love hearing from real farmers and producers. They have such a wealth of specialized and amazing knowledge. They keep the world running and we all want to hear from them. You want to learn,” another viewer wrote.
