Pesticide Reduction Efficacy from 47 Studies on Household Produce Washing Methods

A scoping review dataset aggregating results from 47 peer-reviewed studies on the effectiveness of household methods for reducing pesticide residues on fruits and vegetables. The dataset includes 1,100 individual reduction-efficacy data points across four washing methods: rinsing with tap water, soaking in tap water, soaking in baking soda solution, and soaking in vinegar or acetic acid. It was authored by Dayna de Montagnac and last updated on 2026-04-30.

Use Cases

• Compare the median reduction efficacy of different washing methods based on the reported 30.2% for rinsing, 33.7% for water soaking, 50.9% for baking soda, and 54.2% for vinegar.
• Analyze the range of pesticide reduction outcomes based on the reported spans from 0.0% to over 99.0% for various methods.
• Investigate factors impacting pesticide reduction based on the description mentioning pesticide physico-chemical properties, washing method, and produce characteristics.
• Assess the generalizability of laboratory findings to typical household use based on the noted limitation regarding high solution concentrations in studies.

Strengths

• Aggregates data from 47 peer-reviewed studies, providing a consolidated evidence base.
• Includes 1,100 individual data points across four distinct washing methods.
• Covers 23 produce items and 79 different pesticides, indicating breadth in scope.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• The high solution concentrations commonly studied may limit generalizability to typical household use, as noted in the description.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for specific analytical tasks.

Provenance

Source

figshare, authored by Dayna de Montagnac.

Collection Method

Data extracted from a scoping review of 47 peer-reviewed studies.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-30 05:40:16; freshness should be verified.