Why our fruit isn’t waxed

If you put one of our oranges next to a supermarket one, the first thing you see is that
ours doesn’t shine. It has matt, sometimes slightly rough skin, and it doesn’t
reflect the kitchen light.

That shine has a name: wax. And although the word sounds bad, it isn’t a trick or
a hidden ingredient. It’s an old, legal technique with a very specific job. It’s just that the job
isn’t needed here.

What fruit wax actually is

Let’s start with what hardly anyone knows: an orange comes waxed from the factory.
The tree coats the fruit with a natural waxy layer that protects it from drying out and from fungus.
It’s why an orange can hang on a tree for weeks in the sun.

Why it gets replaced

The problem appears in the packhouse. Before reaching the shelf, the fruit goes through a
washing line with brushes that takes off soil, residues of field treatments and,
along the way, much of that natural layer. A washed, unwaxed orange loses water much faster and
wrinkles within days.

So it’s replaced. A thin layer of edible wax is applied, dried with warm air, and the fruit comes
out with its protection restored — and, incidentally, shiny, which sells better.

What it’s made of

Waxes of vegetable or animal origin authorised as food additives: carnauba wax, beeswax, shellac,
natural resins. They’re regulated, they have E numbers and they have usage limits. They
aren’t toxic.

And on citrus it’s compulsory to declare the post-harvest treatment, which is that line of small
print on the shelf sign that almost nobody reads.

What wax does well

Worth acknowledging, because if it has been used for decades it’s because it works.

There’s also a less discussed and perfectly reasonable motive: wax reduces waste. Fruit that lasts
three weeks in a greengrocer’s gets sold; fruit that wrinkles in five days ends up in the bin. Across
a long distribution chain, that’s tonnes.

In other words: wax is the logical answer to a real problem. That problem is time.
An orange picked in January, kept in a cold store, shipped to a logistics centre, waiting in a
stockroom and finally sitting on a shelf for days needs that protection to arrive intact.

Why it isn’t needed here

Because none of those steps exist. The fruit is picked after your order comes in,
goes into the box and leaves for your home within 24 or 48 hours.

• It doesn’t go through a washing line with brushes, so it keeps its natural wax.
• It doesn’t have to survive weeks on a shelf, so there’s nothing to replace.
• It doesn’t share a lorry with fruit from other origins or wait in a warehouse.

Put another way: it isn’t that we decided to remove a step, it’s that that step only
exists when the fruit has to last. It’s set out in full in
From tree to table.

What you gain from it

The peel can be used

The most practical part. Skin without wax or fungicide can be zested, cut into strips, candied or
dropped into a syrup, and washing it beforehand is enough. With treated fruit you can’t assume that:
wax doesn’t come off with water.

You smell it before peeling it

An applied wax layer seals the pores of the skin, and with them part of the essential oils that
carry the aroma. An unwaxed orange smells from across the basket, and as you peel it, it releases
that little spray of oil you can see against the light.

You know what’s there

No layer between the fruit and you. Nothing to wash off with bicarbonate or peel with caution.

What you lose, which also has to be said

It would be dishonest to tell only half of it.

It lasts less in a bad spot

A waxed orange holds for weeks anywhere. Ours, in a heated kitchen and piled up, starts to give way
in eight or ten days. Somewhere cool and airy it lasts three or four weeks, as long or longer. It’s a
matter of giving it the right corner, and it’s in
how to keep oranges.

It doesn’t look like an advert

Matt skin, the odd rub from the wind, uneven sizes. It’s fruit that hasn’t been through a grader or
a selection line, and you can see it.

And organic fruit — is it waxed?

It’s the question that always follows this conversation, and the answer is surprising: it
can be. In organic production some natural waxes are authorised, such as carnauba or
beeswax; what isn’t allowed are the synthetic fungicides from the previous step.

So «organic» and «unwaxed» aren’t synonyms, just as «organic» isn’t a synonym for «seasonal»: there
is organic fruit brought in from Peru in the middle of August. One is about how it’s grown and the
other about when it’s picked and from how far it comes. It’s in
what seasonal fruit means.

The reliable way to know is the same in both cases: look at the label, which on citrus is required
to declare the post-harvest treatment.

How to tell whether fruit is waxed

Without reading anything, there are three signs:

• The shine. Natural wax gives a soft matt; applied wax gives an even, uniform
  shine, as if varnished.
• Your fingernail. Scraping the skin of waxed fruit gently leaves a whitish mark,
  almost like a scratch.
• Hot water. Submerged for a minute in very hot water, waxed fruit turns slightly
  tacky on the surface.

And with a label it’s easier still: on citrus, declaring the post-harvest treatment is compulsory.
If the sign says «treated with» followed by a name, there’s your answer.

So should fruit be washed?

Yes, always, wherever it comes from. Fruit that has been in a field, in a box and through several
pairs of hands gets washed with water before being eaten or peeled, even with no treatment on it.

And there’s an added reason with ours: as it isn’t washed in a packhouse, it arrives with field
dust on it. That’s soil, not anything else, but it comes off before eating.

With ours, cold water and a rub with your hand is enough. If you’re going to zest
the peel, warm water and a soft brush. No need for bicarbonate or vinegar: those are recommendations
aimed at waxed fruit, and even there they don’t fully work, because wax is precisely what doesn’t
dissolve in water.

What arrives in the box

Everything that comes out of our catalogue — oranges, mandarins, lemons,
persimmons and the market garden — goes without wax and without post-harvest treatment. It’s picked
in Albalat de la Ribera and leaves for your home within 24 or 48 hours: the exact times are in
Shipping.

It’s the only real advantage we have over a supermarket, and it’s also why the catalogue runs
short four months a year. If we put cold-store fruit in to fill the summer, we’d have to start waxing
it.