“All it took was two Facebook posts to turn an online mob against Apeel Sciences and its booming business of keeping food fresh longer,” reports Laurie Cohen. “On that day, at exactly 10:21 a.m. ET, two Facebook posts falsely claimed that Apeel’s product ‘can’t be washed off’ and warned viewers not to ‘eat anything with the Apeel sticker on it.’ The posts linked to the ingredients of a floor cleaner also called Apeel but made by a UK company. Within hours, the posts ricocheted across Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Telegram, Rumble, and Reddit. The posts ignored the fact that the [FDA] and the European Food Safety Authority had separately evaluated Apeel, and found no safety concerns. Or that most of the produce sold in stores is coated with a thin layer of wax. This was an online mob, wielding disinformation and threats. And no one could stop it.”
This week, The Free Press published a piece by Pulitzer Prize winning reporter Laurie P. Cohen examining what happened to Apeel over the past two years. It is honest, it is difficult, and it is worth reading. You can find it here:
A few things are worth saying directly.
The science has not changed. Edipeel is made from plant-based monoglycerides and diglycerides. It has been reviewed by the FDA and the European Food Safety Authority. It is in use today in supermarkets across Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Norway. None of that was any less true because of what was said online.
The mission has not changed either. Store-bought produce rarely tastes like it was just picked from a garden, and that is not an accident. The global food system was built on a compromise. To keep up with a sprawling supply chain, we have spent decades perfecting the art of preservation: harvesting fruit while it is still hard and undeveloped, then relying on an energy-hungry cooling grid and synthetic coatings to keep it from rotting before it reaches the shelf. We have optimized for the journey and sacrificed the destination.
Apeel was built to remove that constraint. Our plant-based protection creates an extra peel around every piece of produce, slowing the loss of water and the onset of oxidation without harsh chemicals or extreme refrigeration. That extra window of stability lets growers leave produce on the vine or the branch longer, so it can reach its full nutritional potential and develop the flavors that only come with real ripeness. The era of survival-based shipping is ending. What comes next is fresh food that tastes like fresh food.
This is the work we are focused on at Apeel. Affordable fruits and vegetables defined by natural taste, free from the waxes and synthetic chemicals of a passing era, moving through a system that most people never see. It is unglamorous and high-stakes, and it stands alongside the most consequential technological frontiers of our time.
We have changed how we operate to meet this moment. For example, our product is less expensive, in line with food-grade wax, and can be sprayed at the grower level and shipped globally. We are listening more carefully, monitoring more closely, and engaging more directly with anyone who has questions about what we do and how we do it. The attacks have not stopped but we are better prepared for them now than we were in 2023.
What we will not do is let a coordinated campaign of falsehoods decide the future of food for everyone else. The people who spread those claims were not asking questions in good faith. They were not weighing evidence. They were content farming and the cost of that fell on growers, retailers, and consumers who deserved better.
To the customers, partners, growers, and retailers who stayed with us: thank you. Your belief and trust means more than you know.
To those who may have paused their work with us because of these malicious attacks: we understand, and the door is always open to rekindling our partnerships. We are inviting anyone who believes fresh food should taste like fresh food to build the future of food with us.
The work continues. Plant-based protection is the future.
— The Apeel Team
Food Fight is a space for honest conversation about the post-harvest industry, the challenges created by coordinated disinformation, and the work Apeel Sciences is doing to restore trust and choice in the food system. We focus on transparency, science, and American innovation, sharing updates, context, and insights that help explain what is on our food and why it matters. Our mission is to help build a future where consumers have clearer information, better options, and a food system that reflects both integrity and progress.
To learn more about Apeel, visit our website at apeel.com and follow our latest updates on Instagram, X, and LinkedIn.
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