A chemical used widely on ‘conventional’ or non-organic apples in the US has been banned in Europe since 2012 after the makers couldn’t prove that is was safe for human consumption. Image credit: SPT Photographe

The chemical, diphenylamine (also known as DPA) is used by apple producers after harvesting to prevent ‘storage scald’, or bruises on the fruit that normally take place during the months it takes to store and transport the apples to the grocery store.

The World Health Organization and US health regulators claims that DPA a relatively safe for human consumption, but EU officials disagree. According to ewg.org

European regulators, to the contrary, ascribe the absence of evidence of harm to poor investigation. They concluded that the manufacturers of DPA had not provided enough testing to prove that their product and any chemicals formed when it broke down were safe (EFSA 2012).

Of particular concern to EC officials was the possible presence on DPA-treated fruit of nitrosamines, a family of potent carcinogens. Nitrosamines contaminate food, cosmetics and latex rubber. They cause cancer in laboratory animals, and some studies have found that people eating foods with nitrosamines have elevated rates of stomach and esophageal cancers (NTP 2011). Nitrosamines form when nitrogen-containing compounds combine with amines, which are compounds derived from ammonia. Government agencies have taken steps to reduce nitrosamine formation by regulating foods and consumer products to limit concentrations of chemicals that can serve as building blocks of nitrosamines.

Considering that the average American eats about 10 pounds of apples each year and DPA is the most common pesticide (it’s not technically a pesticide but it’s treated as one by regulators) found on apples, the presence of cancer causing nitrosamines should be of great concern.

Once again the American public is being exposed to chemicals first then the questions are asked later after people get sick. Here is yet one more reason to eat organic(which is not treated with DPA)

This article is free to republish under a creative commons license with attribution to WeSupportOrganic.com