GreenSmoothieGirl Army Gets Apeel Shut Down
at Billion-Dollar Produce Company!
You did it!
Together we got Limoneira, a huge citrus and avocado company buying from all over the world—to quit using Apeel products!
I’d taken to social media with the names and phone numbers of Limoneira executives—and just days later, I got this text from the massive produce dealer’s CEO!
Did you call them? If so, comment below, because I want to personally thank you.
Let me tell you what the founder of Apeel Sciences was saying about his product over 7 years ago:
He said, back then, to a magazine called Food Engineering, that he would get an organic certification for his product. Which has not happened. We looked it up.
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In fact, the EPA classifies Apeel’s product as a pesticide.
This is the perfect opportunity to point out that many companies try to put iterations of the word “organic” into the name of their product, to make the consumer believe it’s a safe or even healthy product.
In this case, Apeel, Edipeel, and Organipeel are not whatsoever good for us, nor are any of them organic. Even if somewhere in the otherwise synthetic preservative is a little bit of the remains of some plant.
So the Apeel founder goes into the media calling it a “plant-based” product. I assume this is what he tells potential client companies, as well—or why would a 131-year old citrus company (or Costco) even CONSIDER putting this stuff on our food?
If you think that “plant-based” means “entirely made from plants, without other ingredients”—that’s just not at all what Apeel is!
Remember, Apeel has steadfastly refused to disclose the ingredients of its product. I would imagine that’s because they don’t want anyone to knock off their “proprietary” blend. (Also, people like you and me might be horrified.)
Great, fine, I wouldn’t care, until you coat my children’s food with it, and they can’t wash it off. Then I care.
Anyway, James Rogers said 7 years ago that the product he was developing, and had received grants for by then, was inspired by stainless steel being protected by chromium and molybdenum, to keep it from rusting.
So, he said he thought, why don’t I use parts of a plant nobody wants, like the stalks of broccoli, or the green tops of strawberries, to blend up and use it as a preservative on fruits and vegetables?
So that makes no sense. First of all, you can’t apply for a patent for some blend of plants. It has to be a unique and proprietary invention of some kind. Some kind of mystery between God and Nature invented broccoli and strawberries.
Second, it makes no sense because two metals keep another metal alloy from rusting, like chromium and other metals do, for stainless steel, sure--
--but, broccoli stalks and strawberry tops (which are not metals or elements on the periodic table, but rather, plants that oxidize and degrade, themselves, just as quickly as any fruit you might put them on) – they just do not protect other food from rusting (or oxidizing).
Only synthetic, man-made materials could possibly do that. The monoglycerides and diglycerides in Apeel’s FDA filing act much like plastics on the outside of the fruit.
I want to thank NutritionWithJudy.com for these excellent graphics I share, here.
Monoglycerides and diglycerides are well known trans fats that are so harmful to human beings that a warning label is required on foods to which they are added.
If those were ingredients in food, the manufacturer would be required to disclose them.
But because this is a coating on the food, rather than food itself--they just aren’t disclosing it. It’s kind of like they’re exploiting a loophole. IN the food, they have to disclose; ON the food, they don’t.
As you know, if someone sells you a package of cookies, or an energy drink, they are required to put all the ingredients on the label.
But it seems to me that if something is a coating on our food, we should have the right to know what’s in it. The monoglycerides and diglycerides in Apeel’s preservatives, nobody knows what they’re made of exactly, they may have started as plants--
Somebody find out what the monoglycerides and diglycerides are made of, by asking Apeel. I’ll give you $1,000 if you can get James Rogers to put all the ingredients of his product in writing. Yeah, there’s a prize for getting REAL information about WHAT their preservative is made of.
So Apeel founder James Rogers said 7 years ago, in Food Engineering (I don’t want to give it traction by linking to it, but go ahead and “give it a goog” if you want to do your own research):
that he would have a special formula for every fruit and vegetable.
Well, he doesn’t. Over 7 years later, he hasn’t got a product to preserve raspberries. And that’s what he told the Food Engineering publication that he was focused on, back then.
I am unaware of (and cannot find) any berry company who is partnering with Apeel--so I must assume that he could not make a product work on berries.
As we, and you, have written the big berry companies such as Driscoll’s, we’ve gotten clear messaging back that they do not use, and do not plan to use, Apeel.
Please write them yourselves. Let’s just preempt them ever wanting to spray this stuff on berries.
The day there’s metals and solvents on my berries is the day I never get to eat berries again. Which would make me so sad, because they’re not only some of my favorite foods, they’re “nature’s candy”—but also, they’re some of our most anti-cancer, nutritious foods, too!
Start with Driscoll’s, the big one, and any other brands that YOUR grocery store is selling. Go right to the brands!
You can find any brand online in 5 seconds! After you read this, please take a few minutes to write the brands you buy from. You can go look in your fridge and freezer at what brands you buy!
If we keep them from using it in the first place, our task is so much easier than getting them to STOP using it after they’ve signed a contract with Apeel and are actively coating fruit with it.
I’m not sure how James Rogers’ product whose ingredients he will not disclose works, on any fruit or vegetable—and I haven’t seen him even talk about putting it on vegetables.
But they currently seem to be focusing on citrus, apples and avocados, in selling their product to food producers.
These are the ONLY produce I can find that are coated with Apeel. Some small number of brands selling apples, citrus and avocados.
If you find any evidence that other foods are using Apeel, please contact me. My staff WILL share with me the information you find.
They will also cheer for you, if you take the time to contact brands you buy, telling them you don’t want Apeel on your food. And show us what they say!
Apeel’s focus on citrus is very strange, because citrus has the thickest, sturdiest peel of its own, from nature already, versus other fruits and vegetables.
Limoneira is a huge citrus company who had announced a partnership with Apeel, and when I first wrote this blog post…
…I was encouraging you to tell them you will studiously avoid buying any Limoneira produce unless and until you hear from them that they’ve QUIT putting Apeel’s products on their fruit.
I’d already done some posts on social media, and a video about it. I’d listed out the extensions of all their executives and some of their employees.
Well, guess what. Before I even got around to finishing this blog post, and publishing it, the GreenSmoothieGirl Army already had the thing shut down!
On June 10, the CEO of Limoneira texted me this:
So: your voice is being heard! These brands don’t want us to refuse a lemon wedge in restaurants and tell the wait staff and the management why.
They want to sell their product. It’s not worth it to them to have a huge PR war against them.
So. Contact all the brands you like, and buy from, so they don’t even THINK about coating their produce with Apeel’s preservatives!
And on the other side of the wallet card, is a list of brands who’ve been caught selling Apeel-coated produce AND stores who refuse to make a statement despite our many requests.
Keep the wallet card in your wallet, to consult for your shopping, and share this information with friends and family.
These brands selling food are being told that Apeel is “just plants protecting plants”--so you’re going to want to be ready with this fact:
Apeel Sciences’ own FDA filing discloses 5 heavy metals and 2 petrochemical solvents used in the product’s manufacture.
Let me say that again: 5 heavy metals and 2 petrochemical solvents.
As for the actual ingredients, they refuse to disclose them to the public.
Write Apeel yourself, asking for a full ingredient list! You won’t get it, but they DO like to tell you the one ingredient that is a plant material they may or may not add.
I’ve seen people given a variety of different answers by Apeel customer support, including the seeds of grapes being a common one. I’ve also heard James Rogers say in interviews that a big variety of plant matter will do, doesn’t really matter.
The only reason that any plant matter will do, is if it’s just a minor ingredient anyway, in an otherwise synthetic product!
Keep in mind that these people at the brands or stores you talk to are just people like you and me.
They have emotions. We all want to help people who are kind to us. There’s no reason to treat them with anything but kindness, as you tell them you’ll be avoiding all brands who coat their product with Apeel’s preservative.
And ask them if they are going to use Apeel products, to please at least LABEL their product. We have the right to know. We don’t want to buy it.
Apeel founder James Rogers has stated that his company’s goal is to get every piece of fruit in the world coated with his stuff.
Let me state my goal very clearly: which is that ZERO of the fruit you, your children, and your grandchildren eat, is coated with toxins.
James Rogers has been getting lots of grants for 12 years, including two from Bill Gates. Even though he told Mark Hyman he didn’t get money from the Gates Foundation.
Feel free to fact-check me on that, because it’s a matter of public record. Look on the Gates Foundation’s website for the two grants they gave James Rogers.
James Rogers would make millions of dollars, if he could coat all the fruit in the world with his products, which is his stated goal.
He says his goal is to reduce food waste, but don’t need our food covered with solvents and metals trans fats and God knows what else:
so that James Rogers gets wealthy but we get sick.
We have efficient supply chains. We don’t need to coat our healthiest foods in plastic.
Costco signed a contract with Apeel in 2017, which was in the media, but they told me they aren’t using it anymore, because it adds cost.
I’m sharing here a free wallet card of the stores who’ve made a commitment that they do not buy from vendors using Apeel. If you’re watching this on a video platform, look at show notes for the link to it.
Remember that on one side of the wallet card we’ll send you, which you can print for free, we’ve listed the stores who refuse to make a statement committing to Apeel-free produce, as well as stores who have been caught selling Apeel-coated produce.
Plus of course on the other side, you can see the store chains and brands who have made a commitment to not coat their product with Apeel or resell products coated with Apeel.
Give those stores who speak up and commit to avoid these preservatives some love, some thanks, and your grocery dollars.
Good job getting Apeel shut down at Limoneira! All those of you who “put your shoulder to the wheel” are just the best!
If you’d like to see this article in video form, here it is:
Thank you for your support of this blog. Sometimes links in the blog posts benefit our small business. We can’t do this without you, so thank you for all you do to keep this small business and all other quality small businesses alive!
Thank You Robyn… you led the charge after making all of us aware. We are grateful for drawing our attention to this! As always, our love and our respect for all that you do.
Best regards,
Doc
Thank you!