Is Apeel Safe? 3 Things you need to know

Have you heard of the controversial “edible coating” Apeel?

It’s a film that goes on produce to make it last longer, and it’s been approved by the USDA Organics program.

It’s invisible, odorless, and you can’t wash it off.

Many people doubt Apeel is really safe to consume, even though the Bill & Melinda Gates partnered company, Apeel Sciences, claims it is.

What You Need to Know:

1. Apeel is a tasteless, odorless, invisible food coating that dramatically slows down food spoilage.

It’s purpose is to extend shelf life of produce, to make the produce look fresh even if it’s been in a warehouse for weeks. There are versions of Apeel that can be applied before or after harvest. It’s on foods in over 65 countries, including organics in the U.S.

   “Apeel already has approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as “generally recognized as safe” (GRAS). The two products will be marketed as preserving agents (keeping the outward appearance of freshness of the fruit or vegetable), as pesticides (creating a physical barrier for pests) or even as fungicides (such as preventing the anthracnose fungus from shriveling up avocados).  

2. Apeel claims to be environmentally friendly and plant-based.

Apeel is extracted from food waste, like seeds, peels, pulps, and stems from plants. Apeel claims to source a lot of its ingredients from grape skins and seeds leftover from wine processing.

Though it may come from natural sources, the end result is a far cry from leftover orange peels because the raw ingredients undergo a transformation using industrial petrochemical extraction.

However, how “green” is it to use petrochemical solvents in the extraction process?

3. Apeel contains heavy metals and petrochemical solvents, and it may contain trans fats.

Apeel is made of purified monoglycerides and diglycerides, which are edible fatty acids commonly found in the often discarded parts of fruits and vegetables. These types of fatty acids may contain trans fats, which are known to cause obesity and metabolic syndrome.

The problem is the extraction process contains exposure to industrial petrochemical solvents and heavy metals. Apeel tested the amounts of these solvents and heavy metals in their submission statement to the FDA (page 14).

Apeel contains lead, cadmium, arsenic, palladium, and mercury. It claims to be in small enough amounts to not negatively impact the consumer, thus the USDA’s “Generally Recognized as Safe” classification.

Apeel says a consumer would need to ingest 30,000 apples to ingest 1 kg of Apeel. However, I don’t think you’d need to eat 1 kg of Apeel to get a substantial amount of heavy metals. We know heavy metals build up in the body over a lifetime. It’s not a fair comparison to say there are trace amounts of heavy metals in one piece of produce sprayed with Apeel. That may be true, but that person very well may eat thousands of apples in their lifetime, thus exposing them to heavy metals daily.

What Can You Do About It?

One of the best things you can do is to support local farmers and ask them questions about their growing process. There’s no need to use Apeel if you’re going straight to the source.

Another action step is to submit feedback online to your local grocer, especially if it’s a big chain. Tell them you don’t want produce coated with Apeel and won’t be purchasing any produce with an Apeel coating.