ALERT!!! 51 Fruits and Vegetables with Pesticide Residue

Here is the Environmental Working Group's list of the "Dirty Dozen" fruits and vegetables:

All 51 fruits and vegetables with pesticide residue data

EWG analyzed pesticide residue testing data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Food and Drug Administration to come up with rankings for these popular fresh produce items. All 51 foods are listed below from worst to best
(lower numbers = more pesticides)

 

 

 

 

 

Apples

 

 

Strawberries

 

 

Grapes

 

 

Celery

 

 

Peaches

 

 

Spinach

 

 

Sweet Bell Peppers

 

 

Nectarines - Imported

 

 

Cucumbers

 

 

Cherry Tomatoes

 

 

Snap Peas - Imported

 

 

Potatoes

 

 

Hot Peppers

 

 

Blueberries - Domestic

 

 

Lettuce

 

 

Kale / Collard Greens

 

 

Plums

 

 

Cherries

 

 

Nectarines - Domestic

 

 

Pears

 

 

Tangerines

 

 

Carrots

 

 

Blueberries - Imported

 

 

Green Beans

 

 

Winter Squash

 

 

Summer Squash

 

 

Raspberries

 

 

Broccoli

 

 

Snap Peas - Domestic

 

 

Green Onions

 

 

Oranges

 

 

Bananas

 

 

Tomatoes

 

 

Watermelon

 

 

Honeydew Melons

 

 

Mushrooms

 

 

Sweet Potatoes

 

 

Cauliflower

 

 

Cantaloupe

 

 

Grapefruit

 

 

Eggplant

 

 

Kiwi

 

 

Papayas

 

 

Mangoes

 

 

Asparagus

 

 

Onions

 

 

Sweet Peas - Frozen

 

 

Cabbage

 

 

Pineapples

 

 

Sweet Corn

 

 

Avocados

 

The Environmental Working Group, a watchdog organization in Washington, D.C., has just released their annual report to help consumers make more informed choices in the produce aisle. Their lists -- known as the "Dirty Dozen" and "Clean 15" -- analyze data on pesticide levels of 48 commonly sold fruits and vegetables.

The list is guaranteed to disappoint anyone who loves an apple a day, but will be good news if you can't live without guacamole.

The USDA has set limits on allowable pesticide residue it deems safe and requires all produce sold in stores to meet those standards. But this doesn't prevent lower levels of chemicals from making an appearance in your fruits and vegetables.

"The USDA washes and peels the produce items that it tests and they still find pesticide residues on 65 percent of the samples," Alex Formuzis, vice president of EWG, told CBS News.

The organization says allowable levels of pesticide haven't changed significantly in over a decade.
EWG reports all nectarine and 99 percent of apple samples tested positive for at least one pesticide residue. Just one single grape contained as many as 15 pesticides, while single samples of celery, cherry tomatoes, imported snap peas and strawberries were found to have 13 different pesticides each.

This year's list also examined pesticide levels on leafy greens, such as kale and collard greens, as well as hot peppers. Some of these produce items were found to have residues of organophosphate and carbamate insecticides, which research has shown are especially toxic.

In a number of medical studies, pesticide exposure has been linked to Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease, autism and endometriosis.

However, EWG and other health experts emphasize that these findings don't mean you should skip the strawberries. The benefit of any diet rich in fruits and vegetables far outweighs the risks of low levels of pesticide exposure.

The group suggests sticking to organic produce for items at the top of the list. Or if organic produce costs too much, consider loading up your shopping cart instead with the fruits and veggies at the bottom of the list, which includes sweet corn, pineapples, mangoes and eggplant. The majority of "clean" produce has thick skin which means chemicals are less likely to be absorbed entirely.


Thankfully, the report also included also some positive findings: Only 1 percent of avocados had detectable pesticides. On the group's list of "Clean Fifteen" fruits and veggies, only 5.5 percent contained two or more pesticides, and no sample tested positive for more than four.

Note: EWG analyzed pesticide tests of 48 popular produce items. Domestic and imported versions of three items - nectarines, blueberries and snap peas- showed sharply different results, so we have ranked those domestic and imported items separately. As a result, the full list of foods ranked by the Shopper's Guide displays 51 entries.

Thanks to EWG..