Bragg’s apple cider vinegar does not use ‘Apeel,’ an edible coating to lengthen produce’s shelf life

Apple cider vinegar has several uses, from cleaning to cooking to skin care. But some social media users have falsely said the product contains harmful ingredients.

In an Instagram video shared May 30, Bobby Price, a social media influencer who sells weight loss detox programs, says Bragg’s apple cider vinegar "teamed up with Bill Gates and now are using "his ‘Apeel’ apples." He goes on to say Apeel "uses monosaccharides and disaccharides, which are byproducts of all oil processing. OK, so the byproducts of things like soybean oil, canola oil, which are very harmful to the body, and these byproducts are trans fats."

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Apeel Sciences creates edible coatings to increase produce’s shelf life and reduce food waste. But Gates, the Microsoft Corp. co-founder and philanthropist, doesn’t own Apeel, and Bragg’s apple cider vinegar doesn’t use Apeel’s produce coatings, contrary to the social media post’s claims.

Bragg’s website FAQ says it does not use Apeel apples in its apple cider vinegar.

"No, we do not use Apeel or Organipeel on apples used for (apple cider vinegar)," Bragg said on its site. "There is only one way to produce Bragg raw, organic, unfiltered Apple Cider Vinegar. We thrive on natural fermentation and that’s only possible with apples straight from the farm."

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In response to a question on X, Bragg Live Food Products wrote Nov. 14, 2023, that "we have no relation to Bill Gates" and that "we have never and will never use Apeel or any coatings on our apples."

Gates helped fund Apeel, but does not own the company. Apeel received two grants worth more than $1 million from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in 2012 and 2015. Apeel Sciences spokesperson Mark Carmel told PolitiFact the company received the research grants "to help reduce post-harvest food loss and waste in sub-Saharan Africa and improve access to food in this region."

In 2012 the Gates foundation committed $2 billion to agricultural development projects to reduce hunger and help small farmers.

Apeel’s website said, and Carmel corroborated,  that the company is privately held and neither owned nor operated by Gates.

In the Instagram post, Price confuses "monosaccharides and disaccharides" with "monoglycerides and diglycerides." Carmel said the company's two products, Edipeel and Organipeel, do not use monosaccharides or disaccharides; they use monoglycerides and diglycerides.

Monoglycerides and diglycerides are commonly used in processed foods to stop oil and water from separating; the U.S. Food and Drug Administration generally recognizes them as safe. Carmel told PolitiFact that Apeel’s products are free of trans fats, which can increase the risk of heart disease if consumed in large quantities.

We rate the claim that Bragg’s apple cider vinegar uses Gates’ "Apeel apples" and that the coating harms the body False.