The Clean Fifteen: Fruits And Vegetables With The Lowest Residual Pesticide Levels

Yesterday, HuffPost showed you the "Dirty Dozen" fruits and vegetables that, because of high residual pesticide levels, you should try to buy organic. There are reasons to pick organic produce that have nothing to do with pesticide ingestion; to start, organic farming is far gentler on the environment than conventional, pesticide-reliant agriculture. But with food prices rising, it's hard to buy only organic produce. Sometimes you may have to go conventional—but there are better and worse choices.

The Environmental Working Group, in addition to putting out a list of produce to avoid, has also released a "Clean Fifteen" list of fruits and vegetables that are relatively unlikely to be contaminated by pesticides. The EWG found that 90% of the samples of the top three fruits and vegetables on the list contained no pesticides at all. And very few samples of any of the top 15 showed more than one kind of pesticide.

Many of these fruits and vegetables have protective coverings that protect the edible interior from pests naturally. The coverings also help keep any pesticides that are used off the part of the plant you eat.

Here's the full list of the most pesticide-free fruits and vegetables in non-organic form:

1. Onions

2. Sweet Corn

3. Pineapple

4. Avocado

5. Asparagus

6. Sweet Peas (Frozen)

7. Mangos

8. Eggplant

9. Cantaloupe (Domestic)

10. Kiwi

11. Cabbage

12. Watermelon

13. Sweet Potatoes

14. Grapefruit

15. Mushrooms

Comments

[greengulf243]

01:04 PM on 06/18/2011

I'm an American but I live in Chile, and here we grow most of our food without using any pesticides with nice healthy earthworms, etc. See our small farm here: http://www.cdagro.com/farm/farm2011.html Email us if you have any questions!

[Bookbinder15]

05:06 PM on 06/16/2011

I use a product wash ("Fiiit" is the name, I think) on everything except those I peel. Even "clean"-looking stuff can have plenty of dust on it.

[zelda777]

10:28 PM on 06/15/2011

Does anyone know for sure whether or not pesticides can be washed from produce, or do the chemicals actually enter the produce?

[Margie Kronewitter]

11:27 PM on 06/16/2011

Pouorus foods like strawberries absorb most. Other berries and soft fruits next. Foods you peel, like bananas & citrus least likely to absorb, I think. Under ground foods would absorb less. Leafy greens catch Radiation, too. Grow your own and keep out of rain. Just my thoughts. Didn't look this up.

[shilow]

02:59 PM on 06/15/2011

We not only have to be concerned with pesticides but radation coming from Fukushima.
Oh i forgot, we are suppose to forget about that. http://www.fairewinds.com/

[Brer Orabbit]

12:07 PM on 06/15/2011

Your listing is fantastic, and I'm patricularly fond of carrots which are missing from the list. Chomp, chomp, yum, yum.

P. S. I'll definitely check out the cabbage patch tonight.

[IdahoMoxie]

11:42 PM on 06/14/2011

Genetically modified has nothing to do with pesticide residues. And I think the Europeans are completely offbase about being worried about genetically modified produce which one could claim happens anytime you create a hybrid plant. But I wonder that mushrooms are on the list when Andrew Weil used to include them as part of the "dirty dozen" for pesticide residues.

[LiberalGod]

10:06 PM on 06/14/2011

CORN? almost all non-organic corn is genetically modified in the United States. Not so in europe....

[jsarets]

07:20 AM on 06/15/2011

Once again, "sweet corn" is the kind of corn you eat in on the cob or canned/frozen, not the kind that grows in vast quantities in the Midwest. That is "dent corn", and it is mostly used for livestock fodder, corn syrup, and ethanol. Popcorn is the third major cultivar of maize.

These are substantially different crops. Sweet corn and popcorn are relatively minor crops, together accounting for about 7% the size of the massive dent corn harvest, and as low-volume specialty crops they have no GMO varieties.

[hollace]

10:02 PM on 06/14/2011

Has anyone seen the apple size strawg=berries this year. The inside needs to be cored out..all white pith. But we pay by wieght. Taste was not a consideration. Monsanto wants a hold on the world food supply I think. Who would have ever thought to make seeds that will not reproduce. Only for prifit and at the expense of farmers the world round who will starve when their seeds are worthless.

[bbrecht]

12:38 PM on 06/15/2011

They hate food

[BluebirdofUnhappiness]

08:53 PM on 06/15/2011

Which variety are Monsanto strawberries?

[hollace]

09:50 PM on 06/14/2011

trucks thaat carry veggys are also sprayed after they are grown to kill pests going across borders and perhaps State lines. Not to mention being grown in questionable fertilizer. to my mind, anything that has been grown in or sat in bio solids is not worth eating. I'd rather eat less, and pay more than end up in a cancer ward. (veggys are so easy to grow if you have the room, and farmer's maarkets are showing up everywhere including the grounds of local schools and universities.)

[Sensible Center]

08:35 PM on 06/14/2011

Remember that saying about corn being "knee high by the 4th of July?" Then how does it get to market in May? Genetically engineered fairy dust from Monsanto.

[Carbon Forteetoo]

08:53 PM on 06/14/2011

"knee high by the 4th of July?"

You must be from New England.

[HazelPethigFan]

08:55 PM on 06/14/2011

you are just another anti-technology/anti-GMO Luddite. What year do you want to send agricultural back to? 1930? 1830?

[AKJM]

09:30 PM on 06/14/2011

Used t love corn, I shy from eating it now.

[hollace]

09:55 PM on 06/14/2011

The large Agro Businesses (one stop shopping corn) ssre not interested on feeding people for Health...they feed for profit. If thaat wasn't true they wouldn't be turning ariable land into Frito fields. Everything you can get at a gas station is their motto. Your one stop corn stop. Gas, cola and chips. If we DID go backin time we wouldn't have to call it 'Organic". It would be called what are grandparents called it..Food.

[jane bond]

08:22 PM on 06/14/2011

is it legal for us to talk negtive about foods? I'm serious some states have food libel laws where it's a crime, HP goes by New Yorks laws, I have a mouthful to say...

[HazelPethigFan]

09:01 PM on 06/14/2011

Are you going to state fact about food and just not left wing propaganda?

[jane bond]

09:06 PM on 06/14/2011

I never state propaganda, an activist group in Georgia wanted to pour out milk in protest of the hormones and antibiotics in the milk and could not under those democracy trashing laws....surely you don't support those laws.

[baxtron]

12:28 PM on 06/15/2011

Oprah was sued by the Beef industry. But that is probably left wing propaganda. Even the courtroom was assembled as part of this propoganda.

[jane bond]

08:18 PM on 06/14/2011

I would love to know of any green pesticide companies that will come to your home....my whole neighborhood gets ants, it just the area you can keep your home OCD clean and they come...I've tried natural over the counter doesn't work and I won't use toxins.

[ljmck]

09:31 PM on 06/14/2011

Feed the birds. Find out which birds eat ants. Attract them with birdfood if you can. Then decrease the amount of bird food. Sometimes works.

[Oginikwe]

10:35 AM on 06/16/2011

Not very many birds eat ants because of the ulnic acid in them. Flickers will sometimes but even our chickens, (they eat everything, even each other!) won't.

I've had good luck getting rid of ants with peppermint oil--ants hate it. Also, with some boric acid sprinkled where they go. They track it home and it kills the nest.

[hollace]

09:40 PM on 06/14/2011

Nemitoads...look up Nemitoad spray for ants, or grenn solutions for pests.

[Jabandit]

07:58 PM on 06/14/2011

... so basically anything with a rind.

[OatmealEater]

07:27 PM on 06/14/2011

This article talks about "residues" of pesticides which have been sprayed on a plant aren't the only thing to consider. What about the presence of chemicals that get into the plant and go through its entire system down to the roots and out to all parts of the plant? What is on the leaves, will go down inside the roots. Onions don't come up so well in that case.

[MBendzela]

09:06 PM on 06/14/2011

What about the toxic chemicals plants themselves produce in quantities that far exceed the residues left by conventional pesticides?

See here:

http://www.pnas.org/content/87/19/7777.full.pdf

[MTK55]

10:40 AM on 06/15/2011

Bbbbuuutt...if it's natural it must be good!

Psoralens in celery is a good example of a natural pesticide that caused serious issues.

As I commented on the "dirty dozen" article, this "study" is terrible. It only counts the number of pesticides detected, but doesn't factor in what the pesticide may be, it's individual level of toxicity, or even the concentration that it was detected in. Seriously, how can you actually know what the risk is, or even if there is an appreciable risk here, without determining those factors.

It's like saying all car accidents cause the same amount of damage when common sense tells you that the size, speed, and direction of the car is pretty important in determining actual risk.

[Parkite]

09:31 PM on 06/14/2011

If you go to their website and review the methodology you will note that the fruits and vegies were tested after they were washed and peeled (if required) and the pesticide/chemical residue is what is there whether by spraying the outside of if they come up through the roots.

[jf12]

07:16 PM on 06/14/2011

Yum. Must be dinner time.