This could be the green light to reduce single use plastic on much of our fruit and veg. Apeel is a plant based coating which extends the shelf life and thereby hopes to reduce food waste. The use of Apeel could prove to shops that you don’t have an excuse to use plastic.
The pioneering company was set up in 2012 with a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation you can find out all about them here, The EU Commission gave it safety approval earlier this week.
This sounds like a wonderful step forward and certainly will be no problem on fruits where the skin is discarded, and won’t create the same problems that wax on citrus fruit does when you want to use the rind. The problem may come when it is used to coat things like green beans or strawberries where the Apeel coating is meant to be eaten because it can’t be removed, or where the longer shelf life means that the vitamins and other ‘goodness’ have declined to much lower levels than we would expect to receive from eating it.
Now that the products can be sold in our shops we will undoubtedly learn more.
From their website
Can I wash Apeel off?
You could likely remove some of Apeel with water and scrubbing, but it’s unlikely that you’d be able to remove all of it without damaging the fruit. Apeel forms a barrier of edible plant material on the skin or peel, and it wouldn’t maintain the fruit’s natural freshness if it was easily removed. For that reason, we only use food ingredients to make Apeel, so it’s safe to eat along with the fruit. Our partners label produce with Apeel so you can make informed decisions. When considering what produce to buy, check the label and corresponding signage for the Apeel mark.