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What to buy organic: Environmental Working Group releases 2012 Shopper's Guide
Are apples still the dirtiest produce? What should you consider when buying green beans and leafy greens? This year's EWG 2012 Shopper's Guide has the answers.
Tue, Jun 19 2012 at 12:37 PM
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Fruit at the farmers market

Photo: Kristen Taylor/Flickr

Every year, the Environmental Working Group releases a Shopper’s Guide. The guide has information on 45 different conventional fruits and vegetables and their pesticide loads. At the top of the list — the produce found to contain the highest amount of pesticides — is the Dirty Dozen. These are the 12 foods that they recommend consumers always purchase in their organic form. Apples are at the top of the 2012 Shopper’s Guide for the second year in a row. The EWG guide is based on the group's analysis of pesticide residue testing data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

 
At the bottom of the list is the Clean Fifteen, 15 foods that have the lowest pesticide load. If you’re on a limited budget and have to pick and chose your organic produce, EWG recommends that you spend the extra money for the Dirty Dozen in their organic form and buy the Clean Fifteen in their conventional form.
 
2012 Dirty Dozen
1. Apples
2. Celery
3. Sweet bell peppers
4. Peaches
5. Strawberries
6. Imported nectarines
7. Grapes
8. Spinach
9. Lettuce
10. Cucumbers
11. Domestic blueberries
12. Potatoes
 
2012 Clean Fifteen
1. Onions
2. Sweet corn
3. Pineapples
4. Avocado
5. Cabbage
6. Sweet peas
7. Asparagus
8. Mangoes
9. Eggplant
10. Kiwi
11. Domestic cantaloupe
12. Sweet potatoes
13. Grapefruit
14. Watermelon
15. Mushrooms
 
Dirty Dozen Plus category
This year EWG has expanded its Dirty Dozen list with a Plus category "to highlight two crops — green beans and leafy greens, meaning, kale and collard greens — that did not meet traditional Dirty Dozen criteria but were commonly contaminated with highly toxic organophosphate insecticides. These insecticides are toxic to the nervous system and have been largely removed from agriculture over the past decade. But they are not banned and still show up on some food crops. For this reason, EWG lists these on the new Dirty Dozen Plus as foods to avoid or to buy organic."
 
Other significant findings in the report
 
  • Some 98 percent of conventional apples have detectable levels of pesticides.
  • Domestic blueberries tested positive for 42 different pesticide residues.
  • 78 different pesticides were found on lettuce samples. 
  • Every single nectarine the USDA tested had measurable pesticide residues.
  • As a category, grapes have more types of pesticides than any other produce, with 64 different chemicals.
  • 13 different pesticides were measured on a single sample each of celery and strawberries.
 
The EWG Shopper’s Guide has become just that — a guide that many people use to help them make decisions at the grocery store. When you’re at the farm stand or the farmers market and you have the opportunity to direct questions to the people who grow your food, you can ask about the growing methods and make choices based on the information. When you don’t have the ability to ask questions, this guide is helpful.
 

The opinions expressed by MNN Bloggers and those providing comments are theirs alone, and do not reflect the opinions of MNN.com. While we have reviewed their content to make sure it complies with our Terms and Conditions, MNN is not responsible for the accuracy of any of their information.

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Comments: 5
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agarrison207's picture
agarrison207 Jun 21 2012 at 3:41 PM
Pesticides and produce is one of those things where unless you are buying organic you have to assume that it was sprayed with pesticides and was produced from a genetically modified seed, especially corn, zucchini, crooked neck squash, Hawaiian papaya, and canola & soy products. Not only does GMO seeds encourage the use of pesticides but farmers tend to use MORE pesticides than before which is sort of a double whammy because you get the health risks of the genetically modified seed itself PLUS
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all the pesticides. When I shop I prefer to take the guesswork out so I tend to purchase from here because they pledge not to carry anything GMO which I appreciate. I'll include the link just in case you would like that same peace of mind. http://www.greenpolkadotbox.com/invite/id/11081/
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musicprincess11's picture
musicprincess11 Jun 20 2012 at 8:11 PM
Honestly what gets me the most is thinking how many hands have touched the produce. With things like apples where I'm gonna eat the peel I wash them in almost hot water and then dry them with a paper towel or soemthing. I have no idea whether this ACTUALLY helps, but at least I feel like it does lol. I dont' really see the point of rinsing something udner a cold tap for 5 seconds... tho I do it when around other people coz it seems to be the thing to do lol. I'm like either wash it thoroughly or
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don't bother :p (and yes I know that's a bit of a tangent from the original topic).
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margieferrara
margieferrara Jun 20 2012 at 9:03 AM

If you buy non organic fruits and veggies and wash them in a all natural organic citrus "veggie wash" will this remove the pesticides or are the pesticides inside the flesh of the food?

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anonymous
Guest Jun 21 2012 at 8:23 AM
The majority of the pesticides used in todays agriculture are systemic (from within) and are applied before the plant even bears fruit. They are taken up by the roots, the flowers and eventually the fruit. Systemic pesticides only began being used widely in agriculture in the late 90's. Before systemics, pesticides were sprayed on the fruit when farmers began noticing different pests and only resulted in the flesh being coated, which you could wash off. My family is not 100% organic, but we definetely
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take precautions when purchasing fruits and vegetables that are highly susceptible.
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rshreeves's picture
Robin Shreeves Jun 20 2012 at 10:03 AM
Not that I've ever been led to believe. Fruit and veg wash will remove some dirt and even germs, but they aren't very effective on pesticides. In addition to that, some of the pesticides aren't sprayed on the produce topically, they are actually in the seeds themselves (this is the genetically modified - GMOs - you keep hearing about). When that's the case, the pesticides are pervasive throughout the produce.    It's smart to wash all produce - organic and non-organic - in a veggie wash. Even organic
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produce passes through many dirty hands, travels in trucks that might not be clean, and can be contaminated with harmful bacterial like e.coli. Washes will help wash those away (but there's never a guantee). 
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