The Environmental Working Group (EWG) has just released their 2023 annual guide for the produce containing the most pesticides, aka the Dirty Dozen List. For those of you who aren’t familiar with EWG’s list, it is a comprehensive list that comes out yearly, to help guide us as we shop for produce. Along with the Dirty Dozen list, EWG provides a Clean Fifteen List of produce that would be considered safe for you to buy conventional instead of organic. These two lists are helpful as you are shopping and deciding whether to buy organic or conventional produce. I recommend choosing organic for any produce that is on the Dirty Dozen List.
Per EWG- The Shopper’s Guide™ represents EWG’s analysis of the latest fruit and vegetable testing data from the Department of Agriculture and Food and Drug Administration. The 2023 guide includes data from 46,569 samples of 46 fruits and vegetables. The USDA does wash, peel, and scrub all the produce they test for the Dirty Dozen, Clean Fifteen list.
EWG reports that nearly 75 percent of conventional produce
contains pesticide residue. This is residue that can’t always be eliminated just by washing your fruits and vegetables because many times it is on the inside of the fruit or vegetable.
If your main concern about buying organic vs. conventional produce is price, this article might be eye opening for you. Organic produce is much more accessible and the difference in price isn’t as much as it used to be, so compare prices next time you are shopping.
It is extremely discouraging that our foods and how they are grown aren’t regulated better in this country. We shouldn’t have to worry about the amount of toxins and pesticides in our foods, but unfortunately we do. There are many chemicals, additives, food dyes, etc. that are banned in Europe, but are allowed in our foods in the United States. You can make a statement by how you shop and demand better from our FDA and Department of Agriculture.
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