Do pesticides and herbicides stay on food?
Herbicides are spayed on the weeds growing around food crops, “over spray” will settle on food crops in small quantities. Pesticides are sprayed on the food crops to deter pests that would spoil the look of the crop. Washing will remove most of the herbicide “over spray” however the pesticides are systemic which means the plant absorbs the chemical and it is carried around the sap in the crop so that if a pest bites the crop it will be deterred by the pesticides in the plant. Unfortunately you cannot wash this off and it will go into your body. But lettuce are normally grown commercially using “Hydroponics” in other words grown in water so are reasonably safe to eat. assuming the workers wear gloves when harvesting and packaging. One of the worst salad crops affected by chemicals is celery, shame as this is promoted as a ideal for a low fat diet etc etc. part of the problem is we want perfect tomato’s perfect potatoes (no holes) perfect lettuce (no slugs) etc etc . this is only possibl
