These 12 Fruits and Vegetables Have the Most Pesticides — Does Your Family Eat Them?

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The advocacy and watchdog organization Environmental Working Group has released its annual 'Dirty Dozen' list of the produce items with the highest levels of pesticides
Topping the list is spinach, which EWG says includes a pesticide that's banned in Europe
Potatoes were also found to have a pesticide that's banned in EuropeAn annual list of of produce items with high levels of pesticides says leafy greens and fruit are loaded with toxins — including some that are banned in Europe.
Dubbed the 'Dirty Dozen,' twelve popular produce items were found to contain high levels of pesticides and fungicides, according to a new report from nonprofit activist and watchdog group, Environmental Working Group. Topping the list was spinach; EWG's report says they found an average of seven pesticides on the leafy greens sampled, and 76% of the samples contained permethrin, which was banned in Europe in 2002.
As the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says, it's 'classified permethrin as 'Likely to be Carcinogenic to Humans' by the oral route' and is restricted to use on crops and farms only.
Rounding out the list were strawberries, kale (and mustard greens and collards), grapes, peaches, cherries, nectarines, pears, apples, blackberries, blueberries and potatoes.
The spuds also include a pesticide that's banned in Europe, chlorpropham, which the EPA says is used to 'inhibit sprouting in stored potatoes.'
The research was conducted using data from the 53,692 samples of 47 fruits and vegetables from the USDA, and found that 75% of the non-organic samples contained pesticides. Blackberries made the list for the first time, with EWG saying one sample had 14 different pesticide residues.
The advocacy group's vice president of science, Alexis Temkin, told CNN, 'The guide is there to help consumers eat a lot of fruits and vegetables while trying to reduce pesticide exposure … One of the things that a lot of peer-reviewed studies have shown over and over again [is] that when people switch to an organic diet from a conventional diet, you can really see measurable levels in the reduction of pesticide levels in the urine.'
The group also releases a list of the 'Clean Fifteen' — aka, the produce items with the lowest amount of pesticides. These include pineapples, sweet corn (both fresh and frozen), avocados, papaya, onions, frozen sweet peas, asparagus, cabbage, watermelon, cauliflower, bananas, mangos, carrots, mushrooms and kiwis.
Most of these produce items do not have an edible skin, which is a common thread with the fruit and vegetables that the group says have high pesticide levels.
The Alliance for Food and Farming's executive director, Teresa Thorne, told CNN, 'consumers should be reassured by decades of toxicology studies, government data and nutrition research which underscores the importance of a diet rich in fruits and vegetables on health and the safety of both organic and conventionally grown produce.'
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