While I recommend buying organic produce whenever possible, it’s not always in the budget or available. The Environmental Working Group has just released EWG’s 2015 Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce to help with this issue. The guide lists what they call the Dirty Dozen, the most pesticide contaminated fruits and vegetables.
The Dirty Dozen are the items you want to focus on if you can’t buy all of your produce organically. They also have a list called the Clean Fifteen, containing the fifteen least contaminated fruits and vegetables.
The newly updated list ranks 48 different fruits and vegetables by total number of pesticides found on them. This list has been coming out every year since 2004. The guide is easy to use and helps us to be informed customers.
Dirty Dozen (most pesticides)
- Apples
- Peaches
- Nectarines
- Strawberries
- Grapes
- Celery
- Spinach
- Sweet Bell Peppers
- Cucumbers
- Cherry Tomatoes
- Snap Peas – imported
- Potatoes
+ Hot Peppers
+ Kale / Collard Greens
Clean Fifteen (least pesticides)
- Avocados
- Sweet corn
- Pineapples
- Cabbage
- Sweet peas (frozen)
- Onions
- Asparagus
- Mangos
- Papayas (Note: Papayas may be GMO if not organic)
- Kiwi
- Eggplant
- Grapefruit
- Cantaloupe
- Cauliflower
- Sweet potatoes
To see the full list check out EWG’s 2015 Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce. You can also get a PDF version of the lists or with a donation of $10 you can get a bag tag to keep with you while shopping. You can also get the guide as an app! The app includes the full list and is very easy to use.
I’d love to know, do you use these lists when shopping or will you now?
Don’t forget to come back every Monday for more tips on eating Real Food on a Budget.
Thanks for sharing, I would have missed the update. I always keep a picture of these lists on my phone. for easy reference!
This is very VERY useful, thank you for sharing! I’m going to print the list out and pin it to my board in the kitchen!
Good idea, the visual reminder is so helpful!
great lists! I need to save these for later!
We are a senior couple who have not cared about gmo’s or pesticides etc.for nearly 40 years of marriage but now my husband has a gluten sensitivity and a problem with leaky gut/yeast overgrowth. He also has an aversion to most any vegetable with the exception of bell peppers,onions,potatoes,celery if I slip it into his favorite stir fry. I find your lists interesting and yes will likely bear them in mind as I shop. I have access to organic farmers markets here in the spring and summer and at least 5 natural food stores that I haven’t considered until now. I was a no nonsense nurse for over 30 years and don’t believe a lot of what I hear or read,but this has a ring of truth. Trouble is you can find dissenting opinions about most things if you want to. My test will be how we feel and so far we both seem to feel ok.
For me I feel like it’s better safe than sorry. My mom is an RN and I love science so I like to be reasonable and ignore a lot of the fear based stuff. I just feel there are somethings we don’t know yet so I’ll be a bit cautious but not overly panic or anything. Hope this does help you! I’m not a big veggie eater naturally either but if I season them well and add cheese it helps. Cheese helps everything, ha.
I used to never like veggies either till my late hubs became diabetic and I bought a rice steamer and started using it on all my veggies. Now I am in love. Been doing it this way for about 20 years now. And I do agree cheese makes it better -so does garlic or bacon!