Pesticides and other chemicals are on almost everything you eat from the grocery store to your table. But we’ve compiled a list of the 12 fruits that are most likely to contain chemicals, and the 15 fruits that are least likely to contain chemicals.
Whether you buy the freshest fruits and vegetables, shop in the organic section of the supermarket, or hand-pick pounds of peaches from a local farm, they need to be washed before eating or preparing.
Because of the danger of bacteria like E. coli, salmonella, and listeria, cross-contamination, other people’s hands, and various chemicals that remain on vegetables in the form of pesticides or preservatives, all vegetables should be rinsed in the sink before they reach your mouth. Yes, this includes organic vegetables, as organic does not mean pesticide-free; it simply means free of toxic pesticides, which is a common misconception among most grocery shoppers.
Before you worry too much about pesticide residues in your produce, consider that the USDA’s Pesticide Data Program (PDF) found that more than 99 percent of the produce tested had residues at levels that met safety standards set by the Environmental Protection Agency, and 27 percent had no detectable pesticide residues at all.
In short: Some residue is okay, not all chemicals in food are bad, and you don’t have to panic if you forget to wash a few fruits and vegetables. Apples, for example, are coated with food-grade wax to replace the natural wax that washes off during the post-harvest washing process. Trace amounts of pesticides generally don’t have a significant impact on your health, but if you’re concerned about potential exposure to pesticides or other chemicals in the food you eat, one safe practice you can take is to wash your produce before eating it.
Some varieties are more likely to produce stubborn particles than others, and to help distinguish the dirtiest produce from the not-so-dirty, the nonprofit Environmental Food Safety Working Group has published a list of the foods most likely to contain pesticides. The list, called the “Dirty Dozen,” is a cheat sheet for which fruits and vegetables should be washed regularly.
The team analyzed 47,510 samples of 46 types of fruits and vegetables tested by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The organization’s latest research has found that strawberries contain the highest amount of pesticide residue. In this comprehensive analysis, the popular berry contained more chemicals than any other fruit or vegetable.
Below you’ll find the 12 foods most likely to contain pesticides and the 15 foods least likely to be contaminated.
The Dirty Dozen is a great indicator to remind consumers which fruits and vegetables need to be washed most thoroughly. Even a quick rinse with water or a spray of detergent can help.
You can also avoid many potential risks by purchasing certified organic fruits and vegetables (grown without the use of agricultural pesticides). Knowing which foods are more likely to contain pesticides can help you decide where to spend your extra money on organic produce. As I learned when analyzing the prices of organic and non-organic foods, they are not as high as you might think.
Products with natural protective coatings are less likely to contain potentially harmful pesticides.
The Clean 15 sample had the lowest level of pesticide contamination of all the samples tested, but that doesn’t mean they’re completely free of pesticide contamination. Of course, that doesn’t mean the fruits and vegetables you bring home are free of bacterial contamination. Statistically, it’s safer to eat unwashed produce from the Clean 15 than from the Dirty Dozen, but it’s still a good rule of thumb to wash all fruits and vegetables before eating.
EWG’s methodology includes six measures of pesticide contamination. The analysis focuses on which fruits and vegetables are most likely to contain one or more pesticides, but does not measure the level of any one pesticide in a particular produce. You can read more about EWG’s Dirty Dozen study here.
Of the test samples analyzed, EWG found that 95 percent of samples in the “Dirty Dozen” fruit and vegetable category were coated with potentially harmful fungicides. On the other hand, nearly 65 percent of samples in the fifteen clean fruit and vegetable categories contained no detectable fungicides.
The Environmental Working Group found several pesticides when analyzing test samples and found that four of the five most common pesticides were potentially hazardous fungicides: fludioxonil, pyraclostrobin, boscalid and pyrimethanil.
Post time: Feb-10-2025