Buying safe produce?!
Answers: how can I make sure my produce isn't waxed with beeswax or shellac?
The ingredients are on the boxes the fruits etc. were shipped in. Next time they are dumping the 'regular' non-organic apples out of the box into the apple pile, take a look at those ingredients in the wax... wow... really bad stuff... should be illegal. The bees was ingredients are listed too. BUT there are always ingredients within ingredients within ingredients these days. You buy honey or maple syrup and it says "100% Pure" yet they've added lard, or oil, or sugar during the manufacturing process. No, it's not an ingredient, see, it was added as part of the "process". As a defoaming agent, or to allow it to not gum up their equipment, etc. therefore it does not need to be listed. Nice huh? They put it in, but it doesn't need to be listed.
Oh, there's more. There are lots of ingredients that do not need to be listed until they are over a certain percentage of the total product.... aah, the rules are made for the manufacturers, not the consumer. We are only protected from immediate death or illness due to the product, not any long-term health effect or otherwise. You will just have to do your research and find out which companies do not use wax or whatever it is that you are looking for. But, if they say "We do not wax our fruits", does that mean they do not use something else? No. Be careful of working. Call the company. etc.
Buyer Beware, is the name of the game.
Most things in the grocery stores are non-foods, but it 's up to the consumer to decide what they will put in their bodies or not, not the manufactures. Manufacturers can do whatever they want and the government will tell people, "Consuming this or that is bad" but they will not remove such products from the market, because there is the freedom of consumer choice. But, it's SUPPOSED to be *informed* choice, but it is not. We are all inundated with propaganda from all angles to the point where most are totally confused and just say, "Whatever, I'll just eat it anyway, I don't have the time or energy to investigate everything I eat." But hey, I do. I am what I eat.
I suggest washing and peeling suspect store-bought items.
Start a garden as we have. Put in a hundred dollar towards a garden per year and get a few thousand dollars worth of food. Food you need not question. Food that is totally fresh.
Read Masanobu Fukuoka's One Straw Revolution. Great book on growing your own food etc. Order some seed catalogues. One pack of seeds can be 50cents and have enough seeds for years. Backyard, community garden, balcony garden, rooftop garden... whatever. It's all good.
Okay, that was a very long digressing answer....
Ask the clerks at your local reliable organic market if the produce has been coated like that. It'll probably be more expensive though.
You can ask, but many don't use it anymore. You should rinse all fruit and veggies.
You can never be sure. So, all fruit should be washed before eating. With exception of bananas perhaps.
Ask.