What Fruit Peel Do You Eat?
A survey conducted by the UK Food Standards Agency (to help judge if eating fruit peel should be taken into account how much pesticide residue people are likely to get from the food that they eat) revealed that one in five UK adults regularly snack on or eat fruit peel as part of their diet.
- Of the 2,011 adults contacted in the research, 385 said they consumed at least one type of fruit peel.
- About 27 per cent of the south of the UK admitted to eating fruit peel, 16 per cent of those living in the north, and 14 per cent of those in the Midlands region.
- The majority of consumers eat just one or two types of fruit peel, and the most common choices are orange, followed by lemon, kiwi fruit, grapefruit and mango.
- One per cent of people questioned admitted to eating peel from lychee, passion fruit and even avocado.
- Out of the nine per cent of people who ate orange peel, four per cent ate it directly from the fruit. The other five per cent ate it in marmalade and baked goods.
- Banana peel consumers tuck in most regularly, as 80 per cent of them eat the snack once or twice a week.
- People who eat kiwi fruit are not quite so eager, with two-thirds choosing the treat only once or twice a month.
The survey results claim to be an addition to a growing body of evidence that health-conscious consumers are turning to unusual and adventurous snacks.
Would you eat fruit peel? And which one? Banana and orange peel I can still imagine…but avocado’s? Isn’t that a little bit hard to swallow?
Source: NutraIngredients; FSA
I’m a little queazy about it, but I do eat the peel from Kiwis. As a kid we used to eat apple peel all the time. Now, I tend to peel it off and toss it. I never ever considered banana peel?? Lemon slices in cold drinks is another one. You have to wonder if the pesticides are floating around in your sodas?? There goes another one!
I don’t eat a lot of fruit peels, but it is partly because of fear of pesticides. Do you know if in the US pesticides in peels are monitored? If they don’t, I wish they would.
eat organic there are no pesticides. besides pesticides are throughout the whole fruit not just the peel. so go organic.
I eat the peel for most fruits I consume, but not bananas! I never would have thought of that. Not oranges, either. I guess my general rule of thumb is that if I have to peel the fruit to get to the good part, then I discard the peel.
I do worry about pesticides on the skin of fruit and veggies, so I try to buy certified organic whenever possible and I scrub everything within in inch of its life. :]
kk
I eat the peel of apples, kiwi, and oranges. I don’t eat bananas–they give me gas, so I can imagine what adding the peeling might do to me. And I only eat the peeling, or the fruit, for that matter, if it’s organic, except for avocados; I live in San Diego and a fruitarian (fruits, nuts and seeds, raw, and that’s it–except for cumin, sea salt and coconut oil, in very small quantities, to go with my tahini), so if I have to eat conventionally grown avocados, and sometimes it’s necessary, I do it.
I regularly eat banana and orange peels. They are so healthy it is hard to believe. In fact, I think that orange peel is single most healthy food that exists.
Hey! I was wondering the same thing about banana peel. I didn’t want to just throw it away. But I eat orange peel all the time. The best part is I grow my own oranges so I trust them and they taste better than in the stores as well. I clean them really well after I pull a few off the tree. They make my skin look amazing! No harm in eating peeling from a citrus fruit. But of course watch the amount. too much of anything can be bad.