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DeSwiss

(27,137 posts)
Wed Apr 30, 2014, 03:17 AM Apr 2014

Europe BANS Cancer-Causing American Apples



The Young Turks · Published on Apr 29, 2014

"Back in 2008, the European Food Safety Authority began pressing the chemical industry to provide safety information on a substance called diphenylamine, or DPA. Widely applied to apples after harvest, DPA prevents 'storage scald'—brown spots that 'becomes a concern when fruit is stored for several months,' according to Washington State University, reporting from the heartland of industrial-scale apple production.

"DPA isn't believed to be harmful on its own. But it has the potential to break down into a family of carcinogens called nitrosamines—not something you want to find on your daily apple. And that's why European food safety regulators wanted more information on it. The industry came back with just "one study that detected three unknown chemicals on DPA-treated apples, but it could not determine if any of these chemicals, apparently formed when the DPA broke down, were nitrosamines," Environmental Working Group shows in an important new report. (The EFSA was concerned that DPA could decay into nitrosamines under contact with nitrogen, a ubiquitous element, EWG notes.) Unsatisfied with the response, the EFSA banned use of DPA on apples in 2012. And in March, the agency then slashed the tolerable level of DPA on imported apples to 0.1 parts per million, EWG reports.

"What does that have to do with the US-grown apples now gleaming, spot-free, on supermarket shelves? According to EWG, in 2010, when the US Department of Agriculture last looked for DPA residues on US-grown apples, it found them on 80 percent of samples. Average reading: 0.42 ppm, or about four times the new European limit. In other words, the apple on your countertop would likely be deemed unsafe by European authorities."

Ana Kasparian, Jimmy Dore, Desi Doyen and Dave Rubin break down the story of more than one bad apple on American grocery store shelves on The Young Turks.

For more, read the full Mother Jones Magazine story by Tom Philpott here: http://www.motherjones.com/tom-philpott/2014/04/europe-just-banned-apples-you-eat


- So now it's: ''Eat an apple a day and the doctors never go away?''

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Warpy

(110,908 posts)
1. Peeling apples can lessen the load a bit
Wed Apr 30, 2014, 03:27 AM
Apr 2014

but storage scald on apples isn't that big a deal. They need to ban that crap. That would make us appreciate apples in season even more.

I'm not nuts about stored apples, they all tend to be on the mealy side, anyway.

 

Perseus

(4,341 posts)
9. That will help, but you are still better off buying organic
Wed Apr 30, 2014, 08:44 AM
Apr 2014

The chemicals they use to grow apples are also inside the apple, but regardless, organic apples taste really good, they are sweet, while the non-organic have no taste at all.

The only way we have to fight these farm chemically based corporations is to buy from our local growers, you will be helping yourself and your children in the process, and the food does taste wonderful when it is organically grown.

Buy NON-GMO, a lot of companies now have "NON-GMO" labels on their boxes, and buy organic which I admit it is more expensive but if people start buying more organic from local farms the prices will eventually drop to acceptable levels.

Bernardo de La Paz

(48,788 posts)
10. Peeling apples removes lots of good nutrition and fiber. Probably less healthy than ppm.
Wed Apr 30, 2014, 09:33 AM
Apr 2014

The health benefits of eating the peel on apples probably outweighs the very tiny risk that might occur from the breakdown that might happen to the DPA measured in fractions of parts per million that might be on the apple.

Fruit packs a lot of its vitamins and nutrients just below the surface of the skin. Peeling removes this. The skin has useful fiber too. There is a cancer-fighting health benefit from those nutrients and fiber.

FailureToCommunicate

(13,989 posts)
11. Most of the pectin (important for gall bladder health, etc.) is in the skin. That far outweighs
Wed Apr 30, 2014, 10:32 AM
Apr 2014

the slight slight risk of some pesticlde breakdown byproduct.

By all means the growers should get rid of the pesticide , but till then, leave the skin on.

http://www.livestrong.com/article/117341-apple-pectin-benefits/

DesertDiamond

(1,616 posts)
6. Apparently not much import of apples to Europe from China. They'l probably be next to be banned.
Wed Apr 30, 2014, 06:36 AM
Apr 2014

"Russia is the major importer of Chinese apples. After Russia, China's apples go to other countries in the region and hardly into Europe."

http://www.freshplaza.com/article/114950/China-produces-half-of-worldwide-vegetables-and-30-procent-of-fruit

Major Nikon

(36,814 posts)
8. There wasn't much import from the US either
Wed Apr 30, 2014, 08:05 AM
Apr 2014

The reason is because all three of those areas are in the same hemisphere and will all be in season around the same time. Europe will import more apples from the southern hemisphere because they will be in season when apples in Europe aren't.

DesertDiamond

(1,616 posts)
7. I love that song and I've lived by it ever since. I remember rare occasions of worms in apples
Wed Apr 30, 2014, 06:38 AM
Apr 2014

before DDT - and something else that was even rarer back then was cancer.

 

RoccoR5955

(12,471 posts)
13. Which is one reason...
Wed Apr 30, 2014, 05:57 PM
Apr 2014

...why I go directly to the orchard, and pick my own. I also go to the orchard to get cider that is pressed from this year's harvest, and instead of using sulfides, some of the orchards around here have started using UV light to control the bacteria in the cider. I know that there is little or no pesticides in the cider or the apples, because the yeast I use to make hard cider every year, for oh, about 15 years now start the fermentation process within a half hour. When I used cider that had sulfides in it, and other pesticides, it would take 24 hours before fermentation started, and the fermentation was not as robust as it currently is. So either my yeasties (my pets) have mutated to like this stuff, or as I like to believe, it has less bad stuff in it.
(yes I do use fresh yeast, but only every couple or so years. I am probably the only person with millions of pets in my tiny house, and they all live in a couple or three five gallon carboys. (go ahead, call me weird, I take it as a compliment!))

The other reason is that some of the folks who have been keeping these orchards for generations here in the Hudson Valley have become friends. They are neighbors as well, and have made every effort to lessen the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Heck, some use none.

I just think that the Europeans are not getting their apples from the right orchards. I don't know where I would be if I didn't have my great NY apples. AFAIC, they are the best!

 

DeSwiss

(27,137 posts)
14. The Europeans are sick and tired of......
Wed Apr 30, 2014, 06:24 PM
Apr 2014

...the US imposing on them, just like everybody else. Including most of us.Their governments haven't yet completely succumb to the Capitalists and hopefully, never will. They banned Monsatan's GMOs from Europe because they have never offered any lab data that meets minumum Standards of Scientific Testing Protocols for basically the same reason as the banning of these poisonous apples.

All their GMO studies are 90-day studies. Cancers will almost never develop in mice within 90 days. Its usually after 90 days. Is it a coincidence that all their studies end at 90 days? The standard protocol is two years. There are no such two-year GMO tests, except for the ones done by the EU. The very same lab tests where demands were made that it be withdrawn from the International Journal of Biomedical Science.

And yet we happily go on consuming this poison and then wonder how we got cancer. Wonder how we developed diabetes when no one in the family had it before. Everyone seems to want insurance or some kind of healthcare system. But almost no one seems interested in not getting sick in the first place.

The FDA is a joke. A bad joke. Almost all aspects of our government is now controlled by Big Money. The Supreme Court has legitimized it and unless there is a rebellion against this shit.....

- It's only going to get worse. A. Lot. Worse.



BTW: Send me that hard cider recipe!

 

RoccoR5955

(12,471 posts)
15. Hard Cider Recipe
Wed Apr 30, 2014, 09:40 PM
Apr 2014

Simply get some good cider (which has been processed without sulfides) get it to about room temperature, and get yourself some beer or wine yeast, pitch it, put on your airlock, and go. Rack it off every couple of weeks, and after a while, you will have your first hard cider.

For much more info, including everything you need to go, visit: http://www.howtomakehardcider.com/

But remember, sanitation, sanitation, sanitation. You don't want any nasties getting into your brew!

I have many recipes of my own. It is all a matter of whether you like sweet or dry, still or bubbly cider.

My favorite brew is a mead (honeywine) that I make with nothing more than apple cider, honey, and yeast.

These yeasties bring me so much joy, that's why I keep them as pets... Generations of them!

gohl543

(1 post)
17. How to Make Hard Cider
Wed Aug 29, 2018, 01:48 AM
Aug 2018

The best resource for how to make hard cider is a new website called diyhardcider.com.... check it out for great guides for all skill levels, as well as a variety of step-by-step recipes.

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