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I was SHOCKED to be informed that the white young coconuts
that me and my family have been feasting from and promoting may be soaking in chemical(s)!!! So I did a 'little' research and here is what I found out so far.
1) According to this blog post http://www.giveittomeraw.com/profiles/blogs/1407416:BlogPost:431900 Commercial coconuts were tested and found that the "inside" juice and meat of the young coconuts did NOT contain Formaldehyde.
2) A claim was made by Matt Amsden that "lies and made-up stories" (referring ONLY to young coconuts have been dipped in Formaldehyde) BUT no mention of testing for other chemicals was offered. As he wrote "No other chemicals were tested"
3) The only person I found who actually went to Thailand and saw the dipping is Sondra Tatum (http://www.rawguru.com/raw-food-interviews/sondra-tatum.html)
4) "Amanda42" (http://www.giveittomeraw.com/profile/Amanda42) offers "choice between pasteurized (heated) organic ones or sprayed  Raw coconuts." Yet Sondra Tatum (http://www.rawguru.com/raw-food-interviews/sondra-tatum.html) makes no mention of "pasteurized (heated)" coconuts being offered.
5) RawVee http://www.rawfoodtalk.com/showthread.php?t=45587 states they are only dipped in "Sodium metabisulfite"
(see links below) explained as a chemical preservative.
Sodium metabisulfite? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_metabisulfite
"When mixed with water, sodium metabisulfite releases sulfur dioxide (SO2), a pungent, unpleasant smelling gas that can also cause breathing difficulties in some people."
International Chemical Safety Card - http://www.ilo.org/public/english/protection/safework/cis/products/icsc/dtasht/_icsc14/icsc1461.htm "The substance is harmful to aquatic organisms." Acute Hazard symptoms "Abdominal pain. Diarrhea. Nausea. Vomiting."
6) This web page http://www.youngcoconuts.com/reports.html reports that young coconuts "may be treated" and "We are still investigating this" and "This information has not been confirmed" yet they have a "Conclusion" at the bottom of the page.
7) This web page http://www.youngcoconuts.com/reports.html also mentions "Thiabendazole" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thiabendazole but no proof is offered that it is in fact added.
8) Sondra Tatum in her interview (http://www.rawguru.com/raw-food-interviews/sondra-tatum.html) also states that "The soft eye of the coconut is very sensitive and very soft. If a coconut is dipped the chemicals they will enter the coconut through the soft eye. No doubt about it." Which 'may' be true... BUT she offers NO proof to back up her statement!
9) Sondra Tatum also states "I know many believe the young Thai coconuts they eat in Raw food restaurants are good for them but trust me they are not! Also a lot of their food contains the coconut water from treated coconuts. I also know many believe a certain test that was done came back pure, but it did not. I saw the test results myself and there were trace amounts of formaldehyde in that test in the fine print."
Sure it could be true BUT where is this TEST result she's talking about!!! Matt Amsden (the only one I found to have actually paid for a test) does not offer it anywhere that I can find. Soooo how did Sondra Tatum see it??
10) In a post on this site (http://www.basilandspice.com/journal/matt-amsden-tells-the-truth-about-thai-coconuts-and-formalde.html) "Methyl Bromide" is said to come from the VegSource message board - More rumors being spread without facts??? Hmmm!
11) According to this web page "What are Organic Coconuts?" http://www.organicfacts.net/organic-oils/organic-coconut-oil/what-are-organic-coconuts.html "You can see coconut farms in many parts of the world and chemicals are used in growing coconuts in all these parts. Hence not all coconuts are organic coconuts or natural coconuts. Inorganic fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides and fungicides are used in growing coconuts as well. For example, according to the Coconut Development Board, India rhinoceros beetle is the most common coconut pest in India. This can be controlled using chemicals such as sevidol (a mixture of sevin and BHC), naphthalene balls, and carbaryl."
12) According to this PDF document http://www.ba.ars.usda.gov/hb66/055coconut.pdf (from Robert E. Paull1 and Saichol Ketsa2 - 1Department of Tropical Plant and Soil Sciences, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI, 2Department of Horticulture, Kasetsart University, Bangkok, Thailand) "Immature husked nuts can also be film-wrapped or waxed, however the outside color changes rapidly from white to brown unless dipped into sodium bisulfite" (Tongdee et al., 1992 Tongdee, S.C. 1991. Postharvest handling of tender coconut. ASEAN Food J. 6:74-75. & Tongdee, S.C., A. Suwanagul and S. Neamprem. 1992. Control of browning in trimmed green coconuts. In: ACIAR Project 8844, Wkshp Postharv. Hand. Trop. Fruit. Bangkok, Thailand, pp. 15.) "To prevent browning of the remaining husk, nuts are dipped in 1 to 3% sodium meta-bisulfite for 2 to 5 min and then wrapped in plastic film (Tongdee et al., 1991). Sometimes fungicide is included in the sulfite solution. Alternatively, the husk is removed before dipping in sulfite solution."
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MY PERSONAL CONCLUSION - After what I consider a surface (non-exhaustive) investigation, as of today Sept. 28, 2009
1) The non-organic coconuts apparently are being dipped in at least one preservative and possibly a fungucide
2) My guess is the preservative(s) is/are not penetrating the hard shell - I base this on the inability of the water to penetrate/evaporate even after it is no longer a "young" coconut
3) At ~$6 each for organic young coconut (http://snipurl.com/rawguru-organic-coconuts) vs. $1 for non-organic young coconut it may be a challenge for people to give up their affinity for 'cheap' non-organic young coconuts.
4) I will investigate sources for whole coconuts, but they too may not be organic.
5) I may consider personally buying frozen coconuts meat/milk/water. My challenge is that it will be wrapped in plastic (fresh or frozen) which I detest and probably not organic.
6) I will be careful to wash my hands if I handle a non-organic young coconut.
I hope to bring you better news in the future as I learn more FACTS from people around the world!
Rawk On!
JD Mumma, Ami.
New to coconuts?
You might find this video very informative - David Wolfe on Coconuts! - Sunfood Nutrition (http://snipurl.com/sun-food) Raw Superfoods
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5ejwFvr170
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