Dirty Dozen & Clean Fifteen
It’s no secret that the produce we buy from our local grocery store is usually sprayed with a ridiculous amount of pesticides. It’s not always feasible to buy ALL organic. So what can you do to avoid consuming some of these toxins? Do what you can. Avoid the fruits and vegetables that have the highest amounts of pesticides. Use this Dirty Dozen and Clean Fifteen chart as a reference the next time you go shopping.
It’s no secret that the produce we buy from our local grocery store is usually sprayed with a ridiculous amount of pesticides. It’s not always feasible to buy ALL organic. So what can you do to avoid consuming some of these toxins? Do what you can. Avoid the fruits and vegetables that have the highest amounts of pesticides. Use this Dirty Dozen and Clean Fifteen chart as a reference the next time you go shopping.
Each year the environmental Working Group puts out the Shoppers Guide to Pesticides in Produce. EWG's Shopper's Guide to Pesticides in Produce calculates that USDA tests found a total 165 different pesticides on thousands of fruit and vegetables samples examined in 2013.
Pesticides persisted on fruits and vegetables tested by USDA, even when they were washed and, in some cases, peeled.
Highlights of Dirty Dozen™ 2015 EWG singles out produce with the highest pesticide loads for its Dirty Dozen™ list. This year, it is comprised of apples, peaches, nectarines, strawberries, grapes, celery, spinach, sweet bell peppers, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, imported snap peas and potatoes.
Each of these foods tested positive in a number of different pesticide residues and showed higher concentrations of pesticides than other produce items.
Key findings:
- 99 percent of apple samples, 98 percent of peaches, and 97 percent of nectarines tested positive for at least one pesticide residue.
- The average potato had more pesticides by weight than any other produce.
- A single grape sample and a sweet bell pepper sample contained 15 pesticides.
- Single samples of cherry tomatoes, nectarines, peaches, imported snap peas and strawberries showed 13 different pesticides apiece.
The Clean Fifteen™EWG's Clean Fifteen™ list of produce least likely to hold pesticide residues consists of avocados, sweet corn, pineapples, cabbage, frozen sweet peas, onions, asparagus, mangoes, papayas, kiwis, eggplant, grapefruit, cantaloupe, cauliflower and sweet potatoes. Relatively few pesticides were detected on these foods, and tests found low total concentrations of pesticides on them.
Key findings:
- Avocados were the cleanest: only 1 percent of avocado samples showed any detectable pesticides.
- Some 89 percent of pineapples, 82 percent of kiwi, 80 percent of papayas, 88 percent of mango and 61 percent of cantaloupe had no residues.
- No single fruit sample from the Clean Fifteen™ tested positive for more than 4 types of pesticides.
- Multiple pesticide residues are extremely rare on Clean Fifteen™ vegetables. Only 5.5 percent of Clean Fifteen samples had two or more pesticides.
Visit EWG.org to read the full report summary.
