Many supermarkets and shops often coat some fruit in a fine layer of wax in order to boost its aesthetic appeal. Although this wax is safe to eat, it can be easily cleaned off at home using natural ingredients.
Anything from apples and pears to avocados and limes can be coated in wax.
One of the key reasons people may be put off leaving a wax coating on their fruit is due to the substance it is often made from.
Confectioner’s glaze or shellac, which is typically used to coat fruit, is made from a resin excreted by the female lac beetle.
This resin is processed into flakes, dissolved in denatured alcohol to make liquid shellac, and then sprayed onto some food products to create a shiny coating and improve shelf life.
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According to Beth Stevenson, a baking expert at Dr. Oetker, while you may typically keep baking soda at home to help with leavening when whipping up a loaf of bread or batch of pastries, it is also a really good natural cleaner.
The kitchen cupboard ingredient is also low cost, with supermarkets selling it for just 65p per container.
Ms Stevenson said: “You can mix a little baking soda with water and use the solution to remove any dirt or wax from your fresh fruit and vegetables.
“This saves you from having to undergo lots of scrubbing in water.”
Although eating the wax coating is harmless, if you are planning to use certain fruits in baking, Ms Stevenson recommends grabbing some baking soda and cleaning them first.
She said: “It is important to remove the wax coating from citrus fruits before using their zest in cooking or baking.”
Baking soda also helps clean other items from your fruit which you may not want to ingest.
Ms Stevenson added: “It’s also a great way to remove pesticides from the skins of fruit and vegetables meaning that they then don’t need to be peeled.”