Is the ozone vegetable washer really effective at removing pesticides, or is it a rumor? Smart Life Lab puts it to the test

As temperatures rise day by day, fresh fruits and vegetables are gradually coming onto the market. But what is worrying is that although fruits and vegetables are tasty, pesticides are hard to wash off.

As for the problem of pesticide residues on fruits and vegetables, a product called an ozone vegetable washer has appeared in the past two years:

Ozone vegetable washer

It generates ozone through ionization and uses the strong oxidizing power of ozone to make ozone react chemically with pesticides, fertilizers, additives and so on, causing them to detach from the surface of fruits and vegetables, thereby achieving the purpose of cleaning fruits and vegetables.

In most cases, this product is peddled by salespeople in residential communities to elderly men and women who love health regimens. It is said that some of these elderly men and women even regard the ozone vegetable washer as a treasure and use it every time they wash vegetables. Over time, they no longer eat out, feeling that vegetables outside are never washed clean.

So is the ozone vegetable washer really that magical? And how effective is it at removing pesticides? Today, Smart Life Jun will use an experiment to tell everyone.

1. Experimental materials

The ozone machine used in the experiment was a product peddled in the residential community where a colleague lives. The purchasing power of the elderly women, you know it... The salespeople affectionately called them "Auntie" a few times, and combined with high-tech terms like ozone sterilization, the elderly women could no longer hold back their fervent enthusiasm for spending. After that, an ozone vegetable washer appeared in the colleague's kitchen.

Ozone vegetable washer

Smart Life Jun searched online and found that the vegetables and fruits with the most pesticide residues are cucumbers, strawberries and leafy green vegetables. So Smart Life Jun took Smart Life Mei to the market and bought some cucumbers, strawberries and rapeseed greens.

Considering the vegetable-washing methods everyone commonly uses, Smart Life Jun also bought dish soap, to compare the pesticide residue results after no washing, soaking in water, washing with an ozone vegetable washer, and washing with dish soap.

For pesticide testing, Smart Life Jun bought the best-selling pesticide rapid test cards on a certain online shopping platform. They are simple to use, and in 3 minutes you can test whether pesticides exceed the standard.

Pesticide rapid test card

How to use the pesticide rapid test card

2. Experimental process

During the experiment, we first tested the pesticide residue on fruits and vegetables in an unwashed state, and then separately tested the pesticide residue after soaking in clean water, after washing with the ozone vegetable washer, and after washing with dish soap.

Soak in water for 15 minutes:

Wash in the ozone vegetable washer for 15 minutes:

Cucumber being washed in the ozone vegetable washer

Strawberries being washed in the ozone vegetable washer

Rapeseed greens being washed in the ozone vegetable washer

Friendly reminder: the smell of ozone is very pungent, and it almost gave Smart Life Jun and Smart Life Mei work-related injuries from the fumes

Soak in dish soap solution for 15 minutes:

3. Experimental results

This experiment is a reference comparison experiment, so during the experimental measurement a blank control card needed to be made with purified water. A white tablet turning sky blue indicates no pesticide residue. In the test, the closer the color the white tablet turns to sky blue, the less pesticide residue there is; on the contrary, the lighter the color the white tablet turns, the more pesticide residue there is.

Blank control card

Overall, among the three fruits and vegetables, cucumber had the most pesticide residue, followed by strawberry, and rapeseed greens had the least pesticide residue.

In the cucumber washing comparison, the ozone vegetable washer had the most obvious effect on removing pesticides, followed by soaking in clean water. This shows that the ozone vegetable washer can remove part of the pesticide residue.

In the strawberry washing comparison, dish soap had the best effect on removing pesticides, followed by soaking in water, while the ozone vegetable washer's performance was not obvious, removing very little pesticide.

In the rapeseed greens washing comparison, because rapeseed greens themselves did not have much pesticide residue, the three washing methods all had no obvious effect on removing pesticides, and it was hard to tell which was better.

Why does the ozone vegetable washer have the best effect on removing pesticide residue on cucumbers?

After consulting materials, Smart Life Jun finally found the answer. The pesticide rapid test cards we bought can only detect a few common pesticides, including methamidophos, dimethoate and so on, and these pesticides are often sprayed on cucumbers. But for strawberries, the pesticides often sprayed are not these, but some fungicides, so this experiment showed no obvious effect on removing pesticide residue on strawberries.

Judging from the cucumber experiment, for pesticide residue on the surface of fruits and vegetables, the ozone vegetable washer can play a certain role in removal, but how large the removal rate is requires quantitative analysis in a chemistry laboratory.

In fact, judging from the experimental results, soaking in clean water is not bad at removing pesticides either. This is because two-thirds of pesticides are soluble in water, and washing with water can likewise remove part of the pesticides. So everyone should not blindly rely on the ozone vegetable washer. In addition, Smart Life Jun wants to remind everyone that the ozone vegetable washer is powerless against harmful substances deep inside. Those ozone detox machines on the market that claim to remove hormones from meat are basically false advertising.

Finally, Smart Life Jun also wants to remind everyone that when using an ozone vegetable washer, you must keep the surrounding air circulating, because the ozone vegetable washer releases ozone when working, and pungent ozone will fill the surrounding area. If a person inhales too much ozone over a long period, there is a risk of causing lung disease.