Pesticides on Fruits and Vegetables

When To Eat Organic

There are a lot of good reasons to choose locally-grown, organic produce when possible. However, organic food is admittedly more expensive. If you want to maximize the good you do to your body while minimizing the cost, you could choose to purchase organic produce for the fruits and vegetables which tend to have the most pesticides in the United States. It is estimated that if a consumer avoids eating non-organically grown produce in the top 12 ("Dirty Dozen") on this list, pesticide exposure can be reduced by up to 80%. This list was compiled by the Environmental Working Group from approximately 87,000 studies by the USDA and FDA of the 47 fruits and vegetables listed between 2000 and 2007. Bear in mind that there are many fruits and vegetables that are not on this list -- these were chosen because they are most commonly eaten. Note: when updating this list, I was pleased to see that overall, more items were lower on the list than previously. A few (e.g. greens such as lettuce, but not spinach) were higher.

The scores given are a composite of numbers and amounts of pesticides found in the studies. The "worst", peaches, was given a score of 100, and the others were calibrated from that. The fruits and vegetables were washed or peeled as most people use the produce – for example, apples were washed, bananas and oranges peeled. More information about this work, from the Environmental Working Group

Links from the fruits and vegetables below go to nutritional information, carb counts, glycemic index, and low-carb recipes for each item.

Pesticides on Popular Produce

1. (worst) Peaches – 100
2. Apples – 93
3. Sweet Bell Peppers – 83
4. Celery - 82
5. Nectarines – 81
6. Strawberries – 80
7. Cherries – 73
8. Kale – 69
9. Lettuce – 67
10. Grapes – Imported from outside U.S. – 66
11. Carrots – 63
12. Pears – 63
13. Collard Greens – 60
14. Spinach – 58
15. Potatoes – 56
16. Green Beans – 53
17. Summer Squash 53
18. Hot Peppers – 51
19. Cucumbers – 50
20. Raspberries – 46
21. Grapes – U.S. grown - 44
22. Plums – 44
23. Oranges – 44
24. Cauliflower – 39
25. Tangerines – 37
26. Mushrooms - 36
27. Bananas – 34
28. Winter Squash – 34
29. Cantaloupe – 33
30. Cranberries - 33
31. Honeydew Melon – 30
32. Grapefruit – 29
33. Sweet Potato – 29
34. Tomatoes – 29
35. Broccoli – 28
36. Watermelon – 26
37. Papaya – 20
38. Eggplant - 20
39. Cabbage – 17
40. Kiwi – 13
41. Sweet Peas (frozen) – 10
42. Asparagus – 10
43. Mango – 9
44. Pineapple – 7
45. Sweet Corn (frozen) – 2
46. Avocado – 1
47. Onions – 1