How To Avoid Pesticide in Produce

Which Fruit and Veg Contain the Most Pesticide?

We all know we should be eating lots of fresh fruit and vegetables to maintain a healthy diet. However, there may be residues of pesticide in produce.

Growers often spray toxic chemicals onto their crops, to control pests and to help the crops grow better.

That’s understandable, but it means that the fruit and veggies that we eat have residues of those toxic chemicals on them – even if they’re washed in the field and then washed again by us at home.

Can you do anything about this?

Absolutely!

What You Should NOT Do

Should you stop eating fruit and veggies?  No, absolutely not!

In fact, the most important message of this article is, don’t stop eating fruit and vegetables.

What You SHOULD Do

To be as safe as possible when eating fresh produce, you need to educate yourself on which items have the most – and the least – pesticide residues on them.

Luckily, that’s very easy to do! (more below).

Once you know, then you:

• carry on eating the fruits and vegetables which have the least amount of residues on them.
• But try to buy organic versions of the items that have a lot of residue, because if produce is certified 100% organic, then pesticides haven’t been used.

In this way, you can still eat the fruit and veggies you like!

And that means that you can save money if you wish, by being clever about which items to buy organic, while buying regular versions of the least dangerous produce.

Do NOT stop eating fruit and vegetables!

Which Produce Has The Most Toxic Pesticide?

So, how do you know which fresh produce has the most, or the least, pesticide residues? I said earlier that it was easy – and it is!

There’s a wonderful organization called the Environmental Working Group (EWG) which tests fresh produce every year, and produces a clear, simple and easy-to-use report on the best and worst fruit and vegetables.

The Good News – The Cleanest Produce

These are 15 items of fresh produce which, according to the EWG, have the lowest pesticide residues. You don’t need to buy these organic – unless you want to, of course!

Here are the items which showed the lowest levels of pesticides in produce **

1. Avocados
2. Sweetcorn
3. Pineapples
4. Cabbage
5. Onions
6. Frozen Sweet Peas
7. Papaya
8. Asparagus
9. Mango
10. Eggplant / aubergine
11. Honeydew melon
12. Kiwi
13. Cantaloupe (orange melon, rockmelon, spanspek)
14. Cauliflower
15. Broccoli

The Bad News – The Dirty Dozen

Here are the worst offenders – buy these organic if you can: **

1. Strawberries
2. Spinach
3. Nectarines
4. Apples
5. Grapes
6. Peaches
7. Cherries
8. Pears
9. Tomatoes
10. Celery
11. Potatoes
12. Sweet Bell Peppers

And Finally….

A couple of last things you need to know.

• Washing your produce won’t affect these results.  The EWG tested the produce in the state in which it would be eaten.  So bananas and kiwis were peeled, for example, and apples were washed before the tests were done.  (If you don’t wash your produce before eating, you’re increasing your risk of toxins).
• Soaking fresh produce in baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) in water for 12-15 minutes (less for delicate fruits like strawberries) is much better. Use about 1 teaspoon baking soda for every quart or litre of clean water. Soak them as soon as you get them home from the store.
• Some big produce growers tell us that their produce has no detectable residues.  I think the expression is “massaging the data”.  Different pesticides are used on different crops.  So an apple will test free from a pesticide used on onions, for example.  It doesn’t mean they don’t have pesticide residues, just not certain ones.
• Pesticides are linked to brain and nervous system toxicity, cancer, hormone disruption and skin, eye and lung irritation.  That’s why we want to avoid pesticides in produce.
• Not everyone has easy access to organic produce, nor it is affordable to everyone.  That’s why this list is produced – to highlight the problems, while saving you money on the conventional products which don’t need to be organic unless you prefer.  (If you prefer to avoid GMO food, you will need to buy organic, unless it’s certified GMO free).
• This list is accurate at time of writing. You can find the latest list at the EWG site here.

Want to know more? Of course you do! Watch the video below to find out how the EWG create their list – as well as why certain fruits and vegetables frequently end up on the Dirty Dozen list, while others consistently land at the bottom of the list, what the organization calls the Clean Fifteen.

** Please note that this data is based on produce in the USA.  While Europe has very stringent regulations in some areas of food production, it’s perhaps safe to assume that the broad principles in the EWG Pesticides in Produce report apply to countries outside the USA. One exception however that is noted in the video above is spinach. A pesticide for spinach is used in the US but it’s banned in Europe, so European spinach might not make it into the Dirty Dozen.

Please spread the word – Share, Like or Tweet this article (buttons below and left). Thank you!

Warm regards,

You might also want to try The World Peace Diet!  or find out about food waste and how to reduce it.

Editor’s Note: This article has been updated with new information

Related:

How to store store organic food

12 ways to buy organic food on a budget 

Organic pest control at home – have you thought of this?