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On June 1, I bought three Sugar Kiss melons in the USA. When I got home, I washed them under tap water and used EcoMax Hypoallergenic Fruit & Veggie Wash, to try to wash away any COVID19 viruses on the melons. Then I stored them in my fridge. On June 1 and 2, my family and I ate two of them, without incident.

On June 3, after 15 minutes of eating it and nothing else, our mouths started to burn and itch! We had to keep drinking filtered water to stop the stinging! On the outside, the melon had some black spots — see below. But on the inside, it was orange, looked normal and safe. We've eaten many Sugar Kiss melons in our life, and this is the first time this stinging happened!

An allergist tested us for oral allergy syndromes, but confirmed that none of us are allergic to fruits or melons. I suspect something was wrong with the third melon. But what was wrong?

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Anastasia Zendaya
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    I very much doubt we can give an authoritative answer here. However, given the melons are likely to be similar, my suspicion would be that there was something on the knife you used to cut the third melon. – dbmag9 Jun 23 '21 at 09:17
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    It's also very possible that one of you felt something unusual, told the others, and then the power of suggestion led to the others feeling something was unusual, leading to a vicious circle where you all confirmed each other's feelings. The nocebo effect can be very powerful! – dbmag9 Jun 23 '21 at 09:21

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So - and this nothing related to cooking at all, but may be an answer to your question - I had a look at the ingredients list for Eco-Max Hypoallergenic Fruit and Veggie Wash, and noted that the first ingredient (besides water) is something called Decyl Glucoside

Now, despite the hypoallergenic tag, Decyl Glucoside is an allergen. It has been part of the standard contact dermatitis allergen testing panel since 2009.

It is likely that you had a reaction to the decyl glucoside. Wash your fruit well with fresh water. Products like the above do nothing to affect the activity of SARS-CoV-2, but may be useful in physical removal. Having said that, they won't be any more effective than regular soap. If you want to find one that does affect SARS-CoV-2, see List N from the EPA.

bob1
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    The odds of multiple people simultaneously developing a particular allergy are negligible. – Sneftel Jun 23 '21 at 22:36
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    @Sneftel, yes, but all people from the same family (immune similarity?) who have (presumably) repeated exposure/sensitization to a well known allergen placing it onto a mucous membrane? – bob1 Jun 24 '21 at 01:53
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    Yes, even then. – Sneftel Jun 24 '21 at 06:05