Why Organic Produce?

Always buy organic if you can but, the article below will give you a list of produce that is the most contaminated with pesticides and the least contaminated.

The complete article can be found at www.foodnews.org

What's the Difference?

An EWG simulation of thousands of consumers eating high and low pesticide diets shows that people can lower their pesticide exposure by almost 90 percent by avoiding the top twelve most contaminated fruits and vegetables and eating the least contaminated instead. Eating the 12 most contaminated fruits and vegetables will expose a person to about 15 pesticides per day, on average. Eating the 12 least contaminated will expose a person to less than 2 pesticides per day. Less dramatic comparisons will produce less dramatic reductions, but without doubt using the Guide provides people with a way to make choices that lower pesticide exposure in the diet.

Most Contaminated:
THE DIRTY DOZEN

Consistent with two previous EWG investigations, fruits topped the list of the consistently most contaminated fruits and vegetables, with seven of the 12 most contaminated foods. Among the top six were four fruits, with peaches leading the list, then apples, nectarines and strawberries. Cherries, pears, and imported grapes were the other three fruits in the top 12. Among these seven fruits:

Nectarines had the highest percentage of samples test positive for pesticides (97.3 percent), followed by peaches (96.6 percent) and apples (92.1 percent).

Peaches had the highest likelihood of multiple pesticides on a single sample ? 86.6 percent had two or more pesticide residues ? followed by nectarines (85.3 percent) and apples (78.9 percent).
Sweet bell peppers had the most pesticides detected on a single sample with eleven pesticides on a single sample, followed by peaches and apples, where nine pesticides were found on a single sample.

Peaches had the most pesticides overall with some combination of up to 42 pesticides found on the samples tested, followed by apples with 37 pesticides strawberries with 35.

Sweet bell peppers, celery, spinach, lettuce, and potatoes are the vegetables most likely to expose consumers to pesticides. Among these five vegetables:

Celery had the highest of percentage of samples test positive for pesticides (94.1 percent), followed by sweet bell peppers (81.5 percent) and potatoes (81.0 percent).

Celery also had the highest likelihood of multiple pesticides on a single vegetable (79.8 percent of samples), followed by sweet bell peppers (62.2 percent) and lettuce (33 percent).

Sweet bell peppers was the vegetable with the most pesticides detected on a single sample (11 found on one sample), followed by celery and lettuce (both with nine).

Sweet bell peppers were the vegetable with the most pesticides overall with 64, followed by lettuce at 49 and celery with 30.

Least Contaminated:
CONSISTENTLY CLEAN

The vegetables least likely to have pesticides on them are onions, sweet corn, asparagus, sweet peas, cabbage and broccoli.

Nearly three-quarters of the broccoli (71.9 percent), sweet pea (77.1 percent), and cabbage (82.1 percent) samples had no detectable pesticides. Among the other three vegetables on the least-contaminated list, there were no detectable residues on 90 percent or more of the samples.
Multiple pesticide residues are extremely rare on any of these least contaminated vegetables. Cabbage had the highest likelihood, with a 4.8 percent chance of more than one pesticide when ready to eat. Onions and corn both had the lowest chance with zero samples containing more than one pesticide when eaten.

The greatest number of pesticides detected on a single sample of any of these low-pesticide vegetables was three as compared to 11 found on sweet bell peppers, the most contaminated crop with the most residues.

Broccoli and asparagus both had the most pesticides found on a single vegetable crop at up to 19 pesticides but far fewer than the most contaminated vegetable, sweet bell peppers, on which 64 were found.

The six fruits least likely to have pesticide residues on them are avocados, pineapples, mangoes, kiwi, bananas, and papaya.

Fewer than 10 percent of pineapple, mango, and avocado samples had detectable pesticides on them and fewer than one percent of samples had more than one pesticide residue.

Though 59 percent of bananas had detectable pesticides, multiple residues are rare with only 2 percent of samples containing more than one residue. Kiwi and papaya had residues on 15.3 percent and 23.5 percent of samples, respectively, and just 3.4 percent and 5.0 percent of samples, respectively, had multiple pesticide residues.