So Which Fruits and Vegetables Made the List?
At the top of the Dirty Dozen list is spinach. It was found to have more pesticide residue by weight compared to other fruits and vegetables tested. To get the data on spinach, the researchers used 1,295 samples from the USDA collected between 2015 and 2016 — the most recent data available for this type of produce.4 Here’s the full list:
Spinach
Strawberries
Kale, collard, and mustard greens
Grapes
Peaches
Cherries
Nectarines
Pears
Apples
Blackberries
Blueberries
Potatoes
•There were two newcomers to the list — Blackberries were a new addition, as they were never tested before by the USDA. Meanwhile, potatoes were included in the list after being absent in recent years. This was mainly due to the use of chlorpropham, a plant growth regulator used for this crop. Chlorpropham has been banned in the European Union, according to CNN.5
•EWG listed a few more crops — Called “Plus” (+) items, these were the foods that didn’t quite make the top 12, but were right behind them, just two spots below the 12th place item. This means that even if they’re not technically on the Dirty Dozen, they still had high enough levels of pesticide toxicity that EWG felt they were important to flag. The Plus items include:
Bell and hot peppers
Green beans
•On the opposite end of the spectrum is the Clean Fifteen list — According to the EWG, almost 60% of the fruit and vegetable samples in this list had no detectable pesticide residues, and only 16% had residues of two or more pesticides. In addition, those in the Top 6 did not have residues of more than three pesticides. Here’s the Clean Fifteen list:
So Which Fruits and Vegetables Made the List? At the top of the Dirty Dozen list is spinach. It was found to have more pesticide residue by weight compared to other fruits and vegetables tested. To get the data on spinach, the researchers used 1,295 samples from the USDA collected between 2015 and 2016 — the most recent data available for this type of produce.4 Here’s the full list:
Spinach Strawberries Kale, collard, and mustard greens Grapes Peaches Cherries Nectarines Pears Apples Blackberries Blueberries Potatoes
•There were two newcomers to the list — Blackberries were a new addition, as they were never tested before by the USDA. Meanwhile, potatoes were included in the list after being absent in recent years. This was mainly due to the use of chlorpropham, a plant growth regulator used for this crop. Chlorpropham has been banned in the European Union, according to CNN.5
•EWG listed a few more crops — Called “Plus” (+) items, these were the foods that didn’t quite make the top 12, but were right behind them, just two spots below the 12th place item. This means that even if they’re not technically on the Dirty Dozen, they still had high enough levels of pesticide toxicity that EWG felt they were important to flag. The Plus items include:
•On the opposite end of the spectrum is the Clean Fifteen list — According to the EWG, almost 60% of the fruit and vegetable samples in this list had no detectable pesticide residues, and only 16% had residues of two or more pesticides. In addition, those in the Top 6 did not have residues of more than three pesticides. Here’s the Clean Fifteen list:
Pineapple Sweet corn (fresh and frozen) Avocados Papaya Onions Sweet peas (frozen) Asparagus Cabbage Watermelon Cauliflower Bananas Mangoes Carrots Mushrooms Kiwi
Thin skinned fruits and veggies .. cantaloupe watermelon safe...on the inside