: Does washing vegetables and fruit with baking soda make sense? I have checked the other questions about washing vegetables and fruit, but they don't mention baking soda. Google brings up only unreliable (random blogs that

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A recent study {1} supports the use of baking soda to wash fruits in order to reduce the presence of pesticides. The study
was summarized by www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2017-10/acs-abw102017.php (mirror) as follows:

The researchers applied two common pesticides -- the fungicide thiabendazole, which past research has shown can penetrate apple peels, and the insecticide phosmet -- to organic Gala apples. They then washed these apples with three different liquids: tap water, a 1 percent baking soda/water solution, and a U.S.-EPA-approved commercial bleach solution often used on produce. The baking soda solution was the most effective at reducing pesticides. After 12 and 15 minutes, 80 percent of the thiabendazole was removed, and 96 percent of the phosmet was removed, respectively. The different percentages are likely due to thiabendezole's greater absorption into the apple. Mapping images showed that thiabendazole had penetrated up to 80 micrometers deep into the apples; phosmet was detected at a depth of only 20 micrometers. Washing the produce with either plain tap water or the bleach solution for two minutes, per the industry standard, were far less effective.

References:

{1} Yang, Tianxi, Jeffery Doherty, Bin Zhao, Amanda J. Kinchla, John M. Clark, and Lili He. "Effectiveness of Commercial and Homemade Washing Agents in Removing Pesticide Residues on and in Apples." Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry (2017). pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.jafc.7b03118 ; scholar.google.com/scholar?cluster=15050243519960633498&hl=en&as_sdt=0,5 (the study was funded by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, but is behind paywall, i.e. not accessible by the taxpayers who funded it.)

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From what I can tell it seems like you are asking whether a baking soda solution is a good solution for cleaning fruits and vegetables. The answer to that would be not really, you're wasting good baking soda. Research shows that even purpose made commercial vegetable cleaners were no better than plain water for cleaning vegetables, it's the soaking time and technique used that makes the difference.

The only chemical tested that seems to make and difference is chlorine, which demonstrably reduced contamination on the outside of melons. However, you don't eat melon rinds, I wouldn't wash vegetables or fruit that I was going to eat in a chlorine solution because chlorine is unpleasant stuff and will probably ruin your flavors.

So washing your vegetables in baking soda, vinegar, or baking soda and vinegar is no better than washing them in plain old tap-water. It's better for your flavors that you do not as well. The only use I know of for baking soda in the preparation and cooking of green vegetables is that adding a bit when boiling green vegetables helps preserve their vibrant green flavor by neutralizing the acids that break down the chlorophyll. The trouble is it also turns them to mush, so I never use that method.