These Four Foods Are High in Pesticides – Reducing Your Exposure Is Possible

Since 2004, EWG’s Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce™ has helped Americans choose the fruits and vegetables that are lowest in pesticides. EWG’s guide is based on data from the Department of Agriculture’s Pesticide Data Program, which focuses on fresh fruits and vegetables, a major source of pesticide residues in our diets.

The guide includes the Dirty Dozen™ list of fresh fruit and vegetables with the highest pesticide residues, and the Clean Fifteen™ list of produce with the lowest pesticide residues.

The Shopper’s Guide is released annually, but it’s not EWG’s only research on pesticides in food. EWG researchers also monitor the scientific literature on pesticides and work with independent laboratories to test other types of food for pesticide residue. Through that work, we’ve found four foods that aren’t in the Shopper’s Guide but can be a common dietary source of pesticides.

EWG recommends that consumers trying to reduce their dietary pesticide exposure buy organic versions of these four foods, both in their unprocessed state and in products made with them. Peer-reviewed studies routinely show that when people switch to an organic diet, the level of pesticides in their bodies drops rapidly.