Pesticide Chart "Wisdom From the Kitchen" | Veg4Health: Healthy Eating

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How much pesticide is on/in
the food you eat?

There is a growing consensus in the scientific community that small doses of pesticides and other chemicals can adversely affect people, especially during vulnerable periods of fetal development and childhood when exposures can have long lasting effects. Because the toxic effects of pesticides are worrisome, not well understood, or in some cases completely unstudied, shoppers are wise to minimize exposure to pesticides whenever possible.

The following table is compiled based on test results from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. They tested the most common fruits and vegetables to come up with a list of the "dirtiest" as well as the "least dirty". When buying fresh produce, you may want to consider trying to buy organic with those that have the highest ranking.

Rank (worst to best)	Commodity	Combined Score	Percentage of Samples Tested with Detectable Pesticides	Percentage of Samples With Two or More Pesticides	Average Number of Pesticides Found on a Sample	*Average Amount (in ppm) of All Pesticides Found**	Maximum Number of Pesticides Found on a Single Sample	Number of Pesticides Found on the Commodity in Total
1	Peaches	100	96.6%	86.6%	3.1	1.134	9	42
2	Apples	96	93.6%	82.3%	2.8	0.894	9	50
3	Sweet Bell Peppers	86	81.5%	62.2%	2.4	0.138	11	64
4	Celery	85	94.1%	79.8%	3.0	0.413	9	30
5	Nectarines	84	97.3%	85.3%	3.0	0.576	7	26
6	Strawberries	83	92.3%	69.2%	2.3	0.799	8	38
7	Cherries	75	91.4%	75.8%	2.8	0.290	7	25
8	Lettuce	69	68.2%	44.2%	1.7	0.142	9	57
9	Grapes - Imported	68	84.2%	53.2%	1.8	0.284	8	37
10	Pears	65	86.2%	45.7%	1.6	0.586	6	33
11	Spinach	60	70.0%	31.2%	1.1	1.240	6	24
12	Potatoes	58	81.0%	18.0%	1.0	1.655	4	18
13	Carrots	57	81.7%	48.3%	1.6	0.046	6	31
14	Green Beans	55	67.6%	42.0%	1.4	0.199	6	35
15	Hot Peppers	53	55.0%	27.5%	1.0	0.290	6	51
16	Cucumbers	52	72.5%	31.7%	1.2	0.057	6	40
17	Raspberries	47	47.9%	23.3%	0.9	0.906	6	21
18	Plums	46	74.0%	27.1%	1.1	0.666	4	15
19	Oranges	46	85.1%	34.6%	1.3	0.100	4	18
20	Grapes - Domestic	46	60.5%	23.4%	0.9	0.104	7	31
21	Cauliflower	39	84.6%	14.6%	1.0	0.004	5	15
22	Tangerines	38	66.7%	33.3%	1.2	0.375	3	4
23	Mushrooms	37	60.2%	22.3%	0.9	0.158	5	16
24	Cantaloupe	34	53.3%	19.4%	0.8	0.026	4	25
25	Lemon	31	55.6%	10.0%	0.7	0.188	5	10
26	Honeydew Melon	31	59.2%	14.2%	0.8	0.012	4	16
27	Grapefruit	31	62.9%	15.2%	0.8	0.056	4	9
28	Winter Squash	31	41.3%	11.6%	0.6	0.017	5	26
29	Tomatoes	30	46.9%	13.5%	0.6	0.029	5	16
30	Sweet Potatoes	30	58.4%	10.0%	0.7	0.198	3	17
31	Watermelons	25	38.5%	13.2%	0.6	0.021	4	13
32	Blueberries	24	27.5%	10.0%	0.4	0.327	4	11
33	Papaya	21	23.5%	5.0%	0.3	0.053	4	19
34	Eggplant	19	23.4%	6.9%	0.3	0.013	4	15
35	Broccoli	18	28.1%	3.2%	0.3	0.004	3	19
36	Cabbage	17	17.9%	4.8%	0.2	0.121	3	18
37	Bananas	16	41.7%	2.0%	0.4	0.029	2	7
38	Kiwi	14	15.3%	3.4%	0.2	0.160	3	8
39	Asparagus	11	6.7%	0.6%	0.1	0.026	2	19
40	Sweet Peas - Frozen	11	22.9%	2.3%	0.3	0.010	2	5
41	Mango	9	7.1%	0.5%	0.1	0.057	2	13
42	Pineapples	7	7.7%	0.6%	0.1	0.002	2	7
43	Sweet Corn - Frozen	2	3.8%	0.0%	0.0	0.005	1	3
44	Avocado	1	1.4%	0.0%	0.0	0.001	1	2
45	Onions	1	0.2%	0.0%	0.0	0.000	1	2

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