Don’t be like Snow White

Ask more questions

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Photo credit Diana Polekhina

Someone in my local food community recently posed this question to me:

“Where do you source your fruit? And do you have any info on how we can avoid Apeel? I’ve been considering some sort of CSA/club where I can get a seasonal variety of fruit directly from a farm.”

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Let’s start with the basics:

What the heck is Apeel?

Yes, we better get that out of the way.

Apeel is the food industry’s latest attempt to get rid of those pesky local farmers who are their competition just like Snow White was the wicked stepmother’s competition.

Except you’re Snow White. And they want YOU to take a bite of the apple, dearie.

For all the SAD normies, they have nothing to worry about. The chemical company that created it says it is a perfectly safe coating applied to fruits and veggies that will preserve your fresh produce so it lasts longer. (Hint, fruit and veggies—especially fruits—are not designed by nature to last a long time. Eat your fruit or turn it into jam or fruit cake.)

Apeel is fully FDA approved and received the coveted Generally Recognized As Safe (GRAS) designation.

Never mind that the chemical companies themselves get to determine that the chemicals THEY want added to your food are perfectly safe and of course belong on the “GRAS” list.

Here is the language from their notice to the FDA:

“Apeel Sciences has determined that a mixture of monoacylglycerides (i.e., monoglycerides or fatty acid monoesters of glycerol) derived from grape seed is Generally Recognized As Safe (GRAS), consistent with Section 201{s) of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. This determination is based on scientific procedures as described in the following sections, under the conditions of its intended use in selected food. Therefore, the use of a mixture of monoacylglycerides derived from grape seed is exempt from the requirement of premarket approval.”

There you have it.

Just take a bite, Snow White.

What’s the matter? Not sure if you want to trust the forked-tongue marketing telling you that everything is fine and to just eat the apple, er, um, the Apeel?

In that case, yes, you can avoid Apeel by choosing (drumroll....) locally produced fruits and veggies from farmers operating transparently.... Bet you didn't know I was gonna say that? 😉

As the question-writer mentions above, CSAs are a great option.

CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture.

This movement started in the 1980s here in the states. It was sparked by a desire for a geographically close community to cooperatively support a single farm by paying in at the beginning of the season and getting a portion of the farm’s harvest for the entire year.

CSAs proved to be a great model.

The challenge is that they can be expensive with full payment expected upfront, they are sometimes tough to get to every week, and what you get is what you get.

Other options for local fruit are farmers markets and pick your own places.

One key idea to keep in the front of your mind is knowing that the more you eat seasonally and close to home, the less power these chemical companies have and the more power you return to your household and your community.

Here are some helpful resources to get you started:

Local farms mapped out for you here and here—see what’s available near you.

GRAS status and what it really means.

Important questions to ask the farmers growing your food.

Ultimately, avoiding this new, potentially toxic (but-perfectly-safe-according-to-the-company-making-it), food additive will require increased due diligence on your part.

You will either need to spend inordinate amounts of time reading labels with print so small you need a microscope, or you can opt out of that system entirely and find a local farmer who will speak to you and answer your questions.

The new food system is ours to shape and create.

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About Raw Milk Mama: I believe in the freedom to feed our families how we see fit. I also see the direction that our country is going--no one wants to live in a world where food scarcity is a constant reality. It's time to take back our food systems so they serve us, not monopolistic corporations.