Once upon a time, polishing an apple on your jeans was all it took to clean off dirt or dust before taking your first juicy bite. Nowadays, however, there are a few other things besides dirt to consider when getting your produce ready to eat. Pesticide residue is a common term today, unfortunately, and one that must be taken into consideration, whether you’re eating pears from an orchard, spinach from the grocery store or peppers from your local farmers market.

Both small farmers and large corporate crop producers routinely use pesticides, but some of the chemicals they use absorb into the food that will later be eaten, Science Daily reports.¹ Not just the fruits and vegetables themselves but entire trees, orchards, fields and soil, are sprayed with toxic chemical pesticides to protect against pests and fungal diseases.

Only in the last handful of years has anyone stopped to ask whether the foods coming out of those fields was healthy any longer. The potentially toxic effects that have been uncovered have made consumers and consumer groups more than a little nervous, and for good reason. Fortunately, recent research has found one surprisingly simple way to wash some of the pesticides off your produce, using a substance you probably already have in your kitchen: baking soda.

Baking Soda Works Better Than Bleach to Remove Pesticides From Produce

Washing fruits, vegetables and herbs to remove residue is the food industry’s standard procedure, but questions have arisen regarding its effectiveness. Does rinsing your carrots, plums or cauliflower do the job before eating it? How about holding it under the faucet and rubbing it with a bit of dish soap? A new study² offered a surprisingly simple and affordable tip on how to get rid of toxic pesticides that contaminate food, and it’s not what is currently being used.