AN EDIBLE COATING used to keep food fresh has been falsely described as being dangerous based on a safety data sheet for a product with the same name.

Apeel’s product Edipeel, which is described as a colourless, tasteless “peel” made from plant oils, is designed to slow water loss and oxidisation, making fruit and vegetables last longer.

The Edipeel powder is distributed by Apeel as a powder, before being mixed with water and applied to the fruit where it is packaged.  

 The solution appears to mostly be used on very perishable foods, such as avocados and citrus fruits. Both Asda and Tesco have begun trials of Apeel, so see if it can reduce food waste. 

However, posts shared thousands of times on Facebook have suggested that the edible coating is made out to be something much more risky than it actually is.

“Don’t eat anything with the ‘Apeel’ sticker on it,” one Facebook post begins.

“I checked their website out, you can’t find any information about what exactly is apeel,” the post reads.

“The company is very mysterious about what the product actually is. And, it can’t be washed off no mater how hard you scrub.”

The post then goes on to link to a safety data sheet, claiming that the sheet shows that Apeel causes serious eye damage, and should only be used while wearing protective clothing, including gloves and eye and face protection. 

However, these claims are false and the sharing of the safety sheet is misleading.

According to the product’s website, Apeel is “composed entirely of purified monoglycerides and diglycerides, edible compounds that can be found in a variety of foods”.

“They are safe to eat as verified by regulatory authorities around the world, including Health Canada, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the World Health Organization (WHO),” it continues.

“In fact, they are so safe they can be found in products designed for the most sensitive populations, including infant formula and nutrition shakes for the elderly.”

A study commissioned by the European Food Safety Authority into monoglycerides and diglycerides found that there was “no indication of adverse effects from the available animal studies at the highest dose tested and from the post marketing data” and, when these are used as a food additive, “there is no reason for a safety concern”. 

Apeel’s website also provides product safety information for Edipeel, including product information sheets for various national markets, including in the United States, where the manufacturer, Apeel Sciences, is based.

While the safety sheet shared as part of the misleading claim does suggest that Apeel can be unsafe and that people should seek immediate medical attention if they swallow it, that safety data sheet does not refer to the same product used to preserve food.

The safety sheet shown in the Facebook post is actually for a different Apeel product; a hard-surface cleaning product made in the UK, by a company called Evans Vanodine, made in part from potentially harmful alcohols.

The product page for the cleaning solution on the website of Evans Vanodine, which also hosts the safety sheet linked to on the Facebook post, says in large capital letters: “EVANS APEEL HAS NO RELATION TO APEEL SCIENCES AND SHOULD NOT BE USED TO PRESERVE FRUITS AND VEGETABLES.”

The edible Apeel coating is a different product to the hard surface cleaning product and there is no indication that it is harmful in the same way. The hard surface cleaning product shares the same name and should not be ingested. 

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