Tag Archives: Apple

When you walk in the grocery store, you are greeted by an array of colors from deep purple eggplant to yellow lemons.  The colors always seem to shine. Have you ever wondered why?

A wax coating is added to the fruit during packaging to maintain the freshness.  The wax holds the moisture inside the apple and keeps it looking shiny and fresh at the grocery store.  It’s to appease consumers who buy with their eyes.

The Food and Drug Administration approves the use of food grade wax, but requires distributors and grocers disclose the wax to you.  The FDA tells consumers to look for signs at the grocery store like the one to the left.  However, we found they’re hard to find.  We only found them at three locations we visited.  Five other grocers, and the West Side Market did not have the signs.

As a result of our investigation, stores are taking action.  Consumers will see signs during their next shopping trip.

In our hidden camera investigation, many grocers told us that organic food was wax free.  However, that’s not the case.  The USDA says certain waxes may be used on organic produce.

To read more on this issue, click here.

Wax put to the test
We visited an apple farm in Northeast Ohio to see how the wax is applied.  Apples naturally have wax on them.  If you pick one from the orchard and rub the dust and debris from the orchard off on your pant leg, you will notice the apple shines.  During production, that natural wax is removed.  The apple is washed and scrubbed to remove the debris from the orchard.  Then, a food grade wax is added to the apple to replace the natural wax that’s lost.

We took three apples from the orchard to see if waxed produce really holds up better. We took a naturally waxed apple, washed apple, and an apple with the food grade wax on it.  We set them up in three locations at NewsChannel 5.  Our promotions team wanted to speed up the decay, and placed lights over the apples. We instantly saw decay, but it was on the washed and waxed apple.  We believe this is because of the direct light. The decay is happening right where the lights shine on the apple.

In our second test, we put three apples in a boiler room. There’s no sunlight, but it’s a little warmer back there with all the old machinery that runs in that room.  About a week into the test, we noticed the washed apple began to decay. The waxed one is holding up great.

In our third test, we put three apples on a window sill.  There is not a noticeable difference between the apples at this point, although the washed one is softer to the touch.

Click here to see the results of our three unscientific tests.