This will be a quick little post. Normally I’d just tweet and Facebook something like this, but I think it’s important so I want to make sure everyone sees it. The Environmental Working Group has just posted their ‘2013 Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce’ which is summarized here. In their own words:
The health benefits of a diet rich in fruits and vegetables outweigh the risks of pesticide exposure. Use EWG’s Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides™ to reduce your exposures as much as possible, but eating conventionally-grown produce is far better than not eating fruits and vegetables at all. The Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce™ will help you determine which fruits and vegetables have the most pesticide residues and are the most important to buy organic. You can lower your pesticide intake by avoiding the 12 most contaminated fruits and vegetables and choosing the least contaminated produce.
Here’s the complete list.
The dirt dozen are:
- Apples
- Strawberries
- Grapes
- Celery
- Peaches
- Spinach
- Sweet Bell Peppers
- Nectarines – imported
- Cucumbers
- Potatoes
- Cherry Tomatoes
- Hot Peppers
The clean fifteen are:
- Sweet Corn
- Onions
- Pineapples
- Avocados
- Cabbage
- Sweet Peas Frozen
- Papayas
- Mangoes
- Asparagus
- Eggplant
- Kiki
- Grapefruit
- Cantaloupe
- Sweet Potatoes
- Mushrooms
When shopping for produce you can stretch your “organic” dollars by using them on the dirty dozen and saving your green for the clean fifteen.
Note that the EWG compiles this list by scrutinizing data gathered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the FDA, therefore it’s accurate for the United States, but I’m not sure if it applies across the globe.
Hi guys, great blog! I love this “Dirty Dozen” list – our local organic corner store posts it prominently near the register, but I’ve never seen it anywhere else before. Now I know they’re not making it up!
Thanks! I’d seen this list before last year as well, but also didn’t realize where it came from. I agree it’s nice to know there is some real data behind it.
Just a head’s up: they now have GM sweet corn and most papayas are GM. They may not require a lot of pesticides, but you are still better off buying those organic. Kind of a bummer.
Thanks for the heads up, I’ll try and avoid these as well. Just read an article about a former GM scientist that now agrees the research shows GM foods are potentially harmful.
Interesting! Do you have a link to the article? I’d love to read it.
Ignore my last comment. Just found the link on your most recent post.
EWG is a great source for a lot of enviro tips & info–thanks for sharing!
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