2023 Dirty Dozen/Clean 15

 

It’s that time of year again to review Environmental Working Group’s annual “Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce” and see which fruits and vegetables made the “Dirty Dozen” and “Clean 15” lists. (See previous posts on EWG’s research on The PediaBlog from 2022, 2021, 2019, 2017, and 2016.)

EWG analyzed data compiled by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration:

The 2023 guide includes data from 46,569 samples of 46 fruits and vegetables. The USDA peels or scrubs and washes produce samples before testing, whereas the FDA only removes dirt before testing its samples. Even after these steps, the tests still find traces 251 different pesticides.

 

This year’s study found that 75% of non-organic fresh produce sold in the U.S. contained residues of one or more of these 251 potentially dangerous pesticides. As we are reminded every year EWG publishes its results, children face the greatest health risk and bear the highest burden from diseases caused by chemical contamination of their environment:

Any exposure to pesticides is a problem, given what we know about several ways they can harm humans. But the findings are particularly concerning for children, who are particularly vulnerable to many of the health harms associated with pesticide exposure.

 

It’s important to point out that organically grown foods are nutritionally similar in quality to foods that are grown conventionally. Likewise, we learned this week on The PediaBlog that organic farming practices don’t reduce the potential of neurotoxic heavy metals like lead, arsenic, cadmium, and lead being absorbed into the plant. But because organic farming doesn’t rely on pesticides, the risk of ingesting pesticide residues from organic produce is very low. (Read Sara DePierre’s excellent article, “Is Organic Best?” from the 3/29/16 PediaBlog here.)

Strawberries once again took the top spot among the “Dirty Dozen” of pesticide-contaminated produce this year. And two newcomers knocked tomatoes and celery off the list:

Blueberries and green beans are on the Dirty Dozen this year. Both crops still have troubling concentrations of pesticides that can harm the human nervous system, called organophosphate insecticides, though the levels have decreased over the past decade.

Several green bean samples had residues of acephate, a toxic pesticide, which the EPA banned more than 10 years ago from use on green beans grown for food.

 

Other highlights of EWG’s 2023 “Dirty Dozen”:

• More than 90 percent of samples of strawberries, apples, cherries, spinach, nectarines and grapes tested positive for residues of two or more pesticides.

• A total of 210 pesticides were found on Dirty Dozen items.

• Of those, over 50 different pesticides were detected on every type of crop on the list, except cherries.

• All of the produce on the Dirty Dozen had at least one sample with at least 13 different pesticides — and some had as many as as many as 23.

• Kale, collard and mustard greens, as well as hot peppers and bell peppers, had the most pesticides detected of any crop — 103 and 101 pesticides in total, respectively.

 

As it does every year, EWG also found 15 items with the lowest amounts of pesticide residues for its “Clean 15” list:

• Almost 65 percent of Clean Fifteen fruit and vegetable samples had no detectable pesticide residues.

• Avocados and sweet corn were the cleanest produce – less than 2 percent of samples showed any detectable pesticides.

• Just over 10 percent of Clean Fifteen fruit and vegetable samples had residues of two or more pesticides.

• No sample from the first six Clean Fifteen items tested positive for more than three pesticides.

 

This year, EWG also added an intermediate list of 19 fruits and vegetables that were tested but didn’t make the cut on either the “Dirty Dozen” or “Clean 15” lists:

1. Tomatoes

2. Winter squash

3. Celery

4. Potatoes

5. Cherry tomatoes

6. Lettuce

7. Tangerines

8. Cucumbers

9. Broccoli

10. Summer squash

11. Plums

12. Eggplant

13. Raspberries

14. Grapefruit

15. Snap peas

16. Oranges

17. Cantaloupe

18. Bananas

19. Cauliflower

 

Plant-based foods — fruits, vegetables, grains, legumes — are extremely important for a healthy, nutrient-rich diet. Ways to reduce the risk of exposure to pesticides in produce include:

• Wash and scrub all fruits and vegetables in clean water.

• Peel the skin off fruits and vegetables when possible. (The EPA also recommends trimming fat from meat and skin from poultry because some pesticides accumulate in fat.)

• Buy organic if you can. When choosing non-organic produce, pick more from the “Clean 15” list and fewer “Dirty Dozen” items.

• Eat a wide variety of produce to reduce the risk of ingesting too much pesticide residue from just a few sources.

• Avoid heavily processed foods that might have pesticide-laden and other chemical ingredients.

• Don’t use pesticides in your home garden.

 

Read “Can We Avoid Pesticides?” from 3/24/21 here.

Read the full “2023 Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce” from EWG here.

 

source https://www.thepediablog.com/2023/03/22/2023-dirty-dozen-clean-15/