Consumption of fruit peel

Tuesday 19 June 2007

The Agency commissioned this research to gather more evidence of the quantity and frequency of fruit peel consumption.

The Food Standards Agency takes a precautionary approach in its dietary risk assessments for pesticide residues by assuming that people eat fruit and vegetables without washing or peeling them. Pesticide residues are often found on the outside of fruit and the FSA considers that peel consumption should be taken into account when estimating consumer exposure. However, we have very limited data from our UK dietary surveys on the amount and frequency of the different types of peel consumed.

So the Agency commissioned the following research that found that one in five adults say they eat at least one type of fruit peel regularly.