The 12 foods with the most pesticides

Here are the 15 foods, including fruits and vegetables, that are most contaminated by pesticides

Don't store avocado like this: it's dangerous

What kinds of fruit to vegetables do they contain more pesticides? And which ones are less? The Environmental Working Group, a non-profit research organization, has drawn up the ranking regarding the most genuine vegetables, which has published its annual report.

The eighth edition of the Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce, he examined 45 types of fruit and vegetables and drafted the so-called "dirty dozen“, Which includes i 12 foods more contaminated by pesticides.

In the first place we find the apples, followed by the celery, peppers, peaches, strawberries and nectarines. In seventh position among the most poisoned fruits and vegetables we find grapes, spinach, lettuce, cucumbers, blueberries and potatoes. This instead is the ranking of plants that boast a less presence of pesticides: onion, corn, pineapple, avocado, cabbage, sweet pea, asparagus, mango, eggplant, kiwi, cantaloupe, sweet potato, grapefruit, watermelon and mushrooms.

EWG researchers carried out some tests to identify pesticide residues conducted by the USDA and the Food and Drug Administration between 2000 and 2010. The washed or peeled samples underwent some tests before drawing up the ranking in so that the quantity of chemicals probably present on the food was similar to that present in the food actually consumed.

L’Environmental Working Group, nonostante i risks, argues that the benefits of consuming fruit and vegetables are greater, even in this case. But many think that it may be not only a non-profit organization but the representative of some agro-food chemical group.

Recently, however, theEnvironmental Health Perspectives had published research on the risks to the fetus associated with exposure of the mother to pesticides. According to the study, these foods would produce the same risks associated with tobacco smoke in the unborn child.

One more reason to choose Organic products, don't you believe?

The 12 foods with the most pesticides:

1. apples
2. celery
3. pepperoni
4. peaches
5. strawberries
6. nectarine peaches
7. grape
8. spinach
9. lettuce
10. cucumbers
11. blueberries
12. potatoes

The 15 foods with the least pesticides

1. 1. onion
   2. but
   3. ananas
   4. avocado
   5. cabbage
   6. sweet peas
   7. asparagus
   8. mango
   9. aubergine
   10. Kiwi
   11. cantaloupe
   12. sweet potatoes
   13. grapefruit
   14. watermelon

1. mushrooms

Francesca Mancuso

See the full list here

Read also:

• 10 foods that would be better to buy organic
• 6 ways to reduce pesticides in your home
• An inconvenient truth about the apples of the val di non