Russet potatoes are among the top of the list in vegetables with the highest antioxidants and red potatoes has twice the amount of flavonoids compared to regular potatoes. Hence, organic russet or red potato bag is a staple in my household. But during the beginning of quarantine, I had to let go of my pickiness and had to get a bag of non-organic gold potatoes (only ones available). I was shocked ? to discover this gold potato in perfect condition more than 2 months later while I was cleaning my pantry. And the organic russet potato that I got less than 2 weeks back was sprouting all over.
I knew potatoes were part of EWGs dirty dozen and hence bought organic when possible https://www.ewg.org/foodnews/summary.php#dirty-dozen
This discovery made me put on my curious hat and on digging deeper found that non-organic potato plants are sprayed with pesticides, the soil is treated with fungicide, and after harvesting potato are treated with herbicide chlorpropham that prevents sprouting and increases the shelf life of potatoes and makes them look perfect. Isn’t this crazy?!
Thanks to the tightly regulated organic food regulations in the USA we can be rest assured these toxic chemicals will not get to us if we buy organic ?