NaHCO3 aka Baking Soda Washes All Pesticides Off Your Fruits & Veggies | 100% Pesticide Removal From Surface - SuppVersity: Nutrition and Exercise Science for Everyone
So what should you remember? The commercial post-harvest washing with clorox-based products is "not an effective method" to remove common pesticide residues from apples. Tap water washing, as it is practiced by the majority of consumers was ineffective. Even baking soda (NaHCO3) requires time (ideally 12 min) to rid the apples of 'all' pesticide residues.
'All', in this context, refers to the residues that have not already been absorbed by the skin of the apples. If you want to remove those as well, you will have to peel the apples, which will, unfortunately, rid the fruit of its most valuable nutrients (e.g., polyphenolic compounds, fibers, pigments, vitamins, and minerals).
With 20% of the applied thiabendazole and 4.4% of the non-systemic pesticide phosmet penetrating the apple skin, even 'bicarbonate washers' will thus have to buy organic if they want to avoid any pesticide exposure (by the way with organic produce is also contaminated w/ environmental pollutants, so washing them is also mandatory | Magkos 2003). If you cannot or don't want to afford that, it may yet comfort you that NaHCO3 washing will - even if we account for the pesticides that already made it into the skin - remove 80% of the systemic pesticide thiabendzole and 95.6% of its non-systemic cousin phosmet