How to Identify Pesticide Residues on Vegetables? These Methods Are Very Practical
When people buy vegetables, they are always very concerned about issues such as whether pesticide levels exceed the standard and whether the soil in which they were grown has been polluted. Are there any methods that can help us identify these things? Research indicates that because roots have the strongest absorption capacity, root vegetables such as sweet potato, radish, carrot, and lotus root are the most sensitive to pollution of soil and water sources. Solanaceous vegetables such as green pepper and tomato, tender pod vegetables such as green beans, and bulb vegetables such as scallion, garlic, and onion store fewer pollutants. However, if the pollution level of the cultivation environment is severe, then no matter what variety of vegetable it is, none can escape being polluted. Therefore, consumers need to learn to identify vegetables that have pesticide residues or have been forced to grow with hormones.
Do not buy vegetables with abnormal shapes and colors
Abnormal vegetables may have been treated with hormones. For example, with chives, when the leaves are especially wide and thick, twice as wide as ordinary broad-leaf chives, hormones may have been used during cultivation. Some vegetables also have abnormal colors, such as vegetable leaves losing their usual green color and appearing dark green, or edamame being unusually emerald green. They may have been sprayed with or soaked in methamidophos pesticide before harvest, so they are not suitable for purchase.
Buy fewer insect-prone vegetables
Among the many vegetables, some are easily “favored” by pests, such as bok choy, Chinese cabbage, cabbage, and cauliflower; these are insect-prone vegetables. Because there are many pests, some growers spray them with pesticides frequently, which easily leads to pesticide residues. Some vegetables are not very popular with insects, such as garland chrysanthemum, lettuce, celery, carrot, onion, garlic, chives, scallion, and cilantro, so you may want to choose more of these.
Do not buy vegetables with large fertilizer applications
Because the application rate of chemical fertilizers, especially nitrogen fertilizer, is too large, it can cause relatively serious nitrate pollution in vegetables. Test results of vegetables on the market show that the ranking of nitrate content from high to low is: root vegetables, potato and taro vegetables, green leafy vegetables, Chinese cabbage vegetables, scallion and garlic vegetables, beans, gourds, solanaceous vegetables, and edible fungi. Their nitrate content can differ by 10 times. So we can choose to eat more gourds, fruits, beans, and edible fungi, such as cucumber, tomato, edamame, and shiitake mushroom.