Waxed or Unwaxed..........

How do you know? You can't necessarily tell by appearance. That's the problem....
Here in the US, anything waxed has to be labeled as such.
Because most of our citrus comes from Mexico or the very south part of the US.and since one typically doesn't eat the peels, they do not wax them here in the US. That would just be an added expense.

Typically citrus in the US is picked by migrant farm workers. Then it is either put straight into boxes or bags after running through a sorter. The culled oranges are typically turned into canned orange juice. (Yes, that is as awful as it sounds.)
Now I can understand waxing them if they were going from Mexico to say the UK for keeping purposes.
Longer journey. Off topic: I saw an old dried out orange studded with cloves for sale at the thrift store yesterday. The orange part was long gone, just the peel and cloves. I bet the workers thought it was a decoration and had no clue what they were looking at.
 
Here in the US, anything waxed has to be labeled as such.
Because most of our citrus comes from Mexico or the very south part of the US.and since one typically doesn't eat the peels, they do not wax them here in the US. That would just be an added expense.

Typically citrus in the US is picked by migrant farm workers. Then it is either put straight into boxes or bags after running through a sorter. The culled oranges are typically turned into canned orange juice. (Yes, that is as awful as it sounds.)
Now I can understand waxing them if they were going from Mexico to say the UK for keeping purposes.
Longer journey. Off topic: I saw an old dried out orange studded with cloves for sale at the thrift store yesterday. The orange part was long gone, just the peel and cloves. I bet the workers thought it was a decoration and had no clue what they were looking at.
Its good that your labelling laws specify that it has to be stated. I didn't know that. Here, that is not the case. Its funny really because here we have most everything labelled with country of origin (and often region and specific farmers) but not waxing - but in the US you don't have place of origin but do get to know about waxing! :scratchhead:
 
Running under hot water is a great idea. Thanks.
It needs to be boiling water. Hot is not hot enough.
http://www.wikihow.com/Dewax-Lemons


But basically all lemons and most oranges are usually waxed. if it had a glossy appearance is waxed.

In the UK, you can buy unxaxed lemons but it's not the default. look at them verses the normal one and you can see the difference. lemons are by default, not glossy or shiny but matt in appearance. I'll try to find an image that shows what I mean. but they are waxed for preservation reasons. sadly most fruit is actually waxed including apples. the consumer like things to shine. industry likes things to last longer easily... a few of us prefer things to be natural!

https://www.reference.com/food/difference-between-waxed-lemons-unwaxed-lemons-7206feeba6ce01ec
 
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I thought all of it was waxed unless it specifically stated unwaxed on the label. it is a preservation technique. Edible wax, even apples and pears are waxed to preserve them and make them shine.
 
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