With all the increased travel you may be doing during the holidays, you may find yourself stranded in a plane, train, or automobile with a piece of fresh fruit and no water with which to wash it. I try to travel with at least one or two pieces of fruit (apples, pears) that I've either brought from home or picked up at an airport or fruit vendor. Of course, I rarely remember to scrub them before getting on board—and I've been skeeved out by the prospect rinsing them in an airport drinking fountain or hotel bathroom.
Enter the Eat Cleaner Fruit and Vegetable Wipes, which are an easy way to rid your produce of all the gross, potentially harmful things lurking on the surface. (Ever scratched an apple and noticed a layer of wax? Who wants to eat that? What is IN that wax?) The wipes are all-natural, tasteless and odorless and are also biodegradable, and come either in a resealable pouch or packaged individually. With over 76 million reported cases of foodborne illnesses last year alone, it certainly seems like a wise step to take—and another great, inexpensive stocking stuffer for health-conscious loved ones.
While I'm not traveling anywhere this holiday season, I have tucked a few of the wipes into my purse so that when I'm on the go in the city and suddenly feel like biting into an apple I've picked up at a corner store, I can clean it off and dive right in.
I found this vaguely disturbing. You’re skeeved out by the WATER in a public place? I don’t think the water in a hotel or airport bathroom should pose a problem to your health. If it does, I think we should band together to demand safe water in public places!
Instead, we have a new product to buy, that comes in a plastic container. The theoretically biodegradable wipes will actually end up in the landfill, not in a compost bin where they might biodegrade.
And neither water or wipes will take the wax off your apple. You’ve either got to make your peace with eating wax, buy unwaxed fruit, or carry a peeler.
Just an FYI: A friend of mine taught at a culinary school told me that we really should rinse raisins before eating them or using them in cooking. Apparently during the drying process many uninvited critters walk across the grapes and leave droppings behind. I’m just saying… http://blog.sweetservices.com/sweetscandyblog/
The fact is washing with water is not going to do much and the wipes are going to remove wax because they’re specially formulated to do so. You can use them to wash fruit, hands, utensils, and cutting surfaces. The wipes don’t contribute any more waste than the paper towel you would use to dry your fruit!
We also carry a spray wash to help cut down on waste. To get water safer will take a heckuva lot longer than making a quick behavioral change. Margaret, please let me know if I can send you a sample. I think you’d really like them.
I love these wipes and so does my Six year old. She takes them to school with her fruit snacks and knows to wipe her hands and her fruit before she eats. It saves me having to worry about dirty hands before she snacks after having shared all those things in her first grade class. It’s flu season! Every little thing helps and not only do they not dry out her little hands, they make her feel empowered! She cleans her hands and gets to enjoy a health snack. And it’s all natural. I love this stuff! I carry them wherever I go.