Each year, The Environmental Working Group (EWG) reports the fruits and vegetables with the most, and least, pesticides.
Listed as the “Dirty Dozen”, the food items below were found to have an overwhelming chance of pesticide residue. As stated on the EWG website, the key findings are:
- 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.
Dirty Dozen:
- Apples
- Peaches
- Nectarines
- Strawberries
- Grapes
- Celery
- Spinach
- Sweet Bell Peppers
- Cucumbers
- Cherry Tomatoes
- Snap Peas- imported
- Potatoes
Below are the food items that had the least amount of pesticides, also known as the “clean Fifteen”:
- Avocado
- Sweet Corn
- Pineapples
- Cabbage
- Sweet peats- frozen
- Onions
- Asparagus
- Mangoes
- Papaya
- Kiwi
- Eggplant
- Grapefruit
- Cantaloupe
- Cauliflower
- Sweet Potatoes
