There are fruits and vegetables that contain more residue than others. Often it’s the skin’s thickness that shields a specific produce from pesticide residue lurking on it.
The sad news for strawberry lovers: their favorite fruit contains high levels of residue, mostly because the berry is consumed in its entirety and maintains a porous exterior. Strawberries topped this year’s “Dirty Dozen” of the Environmental Working Group (EWG), its annual list of the best and worst produce when it comes to pesticide content.
Top Offenders In Pesticide Content
In this year’s list, EWG analyzed pesticide residue testing data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA), indicating the order of 48 foods according to pesticide amount.
Following strawberries are spinach, nectarines, apples, and peaches. More than 98 percent of strawberry and spinach samples tested positive for pesticide residue, with one sample of the former found to contain 20 different pesticides. Spinach samples, too, had double the amount of residue by weight on average as any of the other crops reviewed.
What this means: you are better off buying these produce organic.
EWG also revealed its “Clean Fifteen,” or fruits and vegetables with the least pesticide content in terms of type and concentrations. This list includes sweet corn, avocadoes, pineapples, cabbage, and onions.
Organic regulations ban or strictly restrict the use of food processing aids, additives, and fortifying agents such as flavorings, colorings, and preservatives. Since they contain fewer or no added chemicals than their non-organic counterparts, they are usually fresher and cannot sit around on store shelves longer or for weeks on end.
Can’t afford to buy organic food? You may choose organic only when it comes to the “Dirty Dozen,” recommended registered dietitian Lori Zanini, also the spokesperson for the Association of Nutrition and Dietetics.
“If it is not a type of fruit/vegetable that you will eat the skin, then there is no need to buy organic,” she advised, with examples such as avocado, banana, and cantaloupe.
The Complicated Case Of Pesticide Content
For some experts, however, the annual list could be oversimplifying the complex issue at hand and muddying a key message for everyone: consume more fruits and vegetables.
A 2011 study, for instance, concluded the pesticide levels in consumers exposed to the Dirty Dozen were more or less negligible. They also reported that EWG’s methodology did not seem to “follow any established scientific procedures.”
“EPA’s continued efforts to revoke tolerances — specifically for neurotoxic insecticides — is a sign that some pesticides do pose a safety risk in the food supply,” EWG senior analyst Sonya Lunder said in response.
Several studies support the EWG’s stance, including three reports that noted prenatal exposure to organophosphates measurably affected neurological development in children, particularly their IQ.
For Carl Winter, director of University of California, Davis’ FoodSafe Program and co-author of the 2011 study, typical human exposure to the chemicals in question is usually 100,000 times lower than levels showing no effect in laboratory animals who have been fed the chemicals every day in their lifetime.
The fear of pesticides, he added, could also make people less likely to purchase fruits and vegetables at all.
