These fruits and vegetables should always be washed before eating

Fresh fruits packed with vitamins Vegetables It could be some of More correct The foods you put on your plate. But the product’s dirty little secret is that it often arrives painted InsecticidesSome items are more likely to contain these chemicals than others.

To help sort out the dirtiest products from the not-so-bad ones, the food safety nonprofit Environmental Working Group publishes a list of products most likely to contain pesticides. It’s called the Dirty Dozen and it’s a cheat sheet of fruits and vegetables you should always wash.

The team analyzed 46,569 samples from 46 fruits and vegetables tested by the US Food and Drug Administration and the Department of Agriculture. The No. 1 pesticide culprit in the group’s latest study? Strawberry. The popular berry had more chemicals in it than any other fruit or vegetable included in the comprehensive analysis.

In general, foods that do not have natural coatings or edible peels, such as apples, vegetables, and berries, are more likely to contain pesticides. Pieces of produce with the skin that is usually removed, such as avocados and pineapples, are less likely to become contaminated. Below you’ll find the 12 foods most likely to contain pesticides and the 15 least likely to be contaminated.

The Dirty Dozen: Fruits and vegetables that should always be washed

Foods most likely to contain pesticides, according to FDA and USDA data.

1. Strawberry
2. spinach
3. Cabbage, kale and mustard
4. Peaches
5. pear
6. Nectarines
7. apples
8. Grapes
9. Bell pepper and hot
10. Cherry
11. blueberry
12. green beans

The Dirty Dozen is a good indicator meant to alert consumers to which fruits and vegetables need a thorough washing. Even a quick rinse with water or a spritz of it Wash production Helps.

You can also avoid a lot of potential risks by purchasing Certified organic fruits and vegetables Which are free from the use of agricultural pesticides. Knowing which foods are most likely to contain pesticides can help you decide where to spend that extra money on organic produce. As I learned in Organic and inorganic price analysisIt’s not as expensive as you think.

More takeaways from the Dirty Dozen study

• More than 90% of samples of strawberries, apples, cherries, spinach, nectarines, and grapes showed positive results for residues of two or more pesticides.
• A total of 210 different pesticides were found in the Dirty Dozen items.
• Of those 210 pesticides, more than 50 different pesticides were detected in every type of crop on the list, with the exception of cherries.
• Cabbage, kale and mustard, as well as chili peppers and sweet peppers, had the highest number of pesticides detected of any crop – 103 and 101 pesticides in total, respectively.

Conversely, the Environmental Working Group found these 15 fruits and vegetables East May contain pesticides.

Cleaning 15: Fruits and vegetables that you can do without washing

These are the fruits and vegetables least likely to contain pesticides, according to the study:

1. avocado
2. Sweet corn
3. pineapple
4. onion
5. papaya
6. Sweet peas (frozen)
7. asparagus
8. Watermelon aphid
9. kiwi
10. cabbage
11. Mushrooms
12. Mango
13. sweet potato
14. watermelon
15. carrot

The EWG methodology includes six measures of pesticide contamination. The analysis focuses on fruits and vegetables that are likely to contain one or more pesticides, but it does not measure the amount of any single pesticide in a particular piece of produce. You can read more about EWG’s Dirty Dozen in the published study here.