EWG's 2018 Clean 15 for Pesticides

Sweet Corn & Avocados top the 2018 EWG Clean 15 

Sometimes, it isn't about what you are, but more about what you are not.

If you can't afford to buy organic everything, then you are going to love this list. It's the list of non organic fruit and veges that have the least amount of pesticides on them. 

(You will find the list of the top 12 dirtiest fruit and veges to always buy organic on the Dirty Dozen Update.)

This is a USA based report, so firstly some context on why we publish and promote this EWG report. Broadly, there are clearly variations in the Australian market, but many Australians still rely on this report as a basic logic guide to make pesticide free produce decisions. And there are good reasons to do that. 

I am no food scientist and I am a very ordinary gardener, but the basic logic I take from this report is that soft thin skinned or leafy produce is logically going to be more pesticide riddled. Tougher skinned produce is probably better protected during growth stages and even if sprayed, is not as likely to have residue on the edible areas.

Armed with this logic, I survey the list and I buy organic / pesticide free strawberries & spinach when I can and don't worry so much about avocados. Corn - well I am suss about GMO so I buy organic even though it has no pesticides. This approach might be simplistic, but it's more info than we would otherwise have and it allows a person to make reasonable decisions without much fuss.

Every year, the EWG analyse pesticide residue testing data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Food and Drug Administration and use it to come up with rankings for fresh produce items. They rank 48 different foods from the highest number of pesticides to the lowest. This list shows produce starting from the LOWEST amount of pesticides.

Key findings:

• Less than 1 percent of avocado samples showed any detectable pesticides and only one pesticide was found on the 360 avocados tested.
• Less than 2 percent of corn had pesticide residue, but a small amount of corn is GM.
• Some 90 percent of pineapples, 81 percent of papayas, 78 percent of mangoes, 65 percent of kiwi and 60 percent of cantaloupes had no residues.
• No single fruit sample from the Clean Fifteen™ tested positive for more than 4 types of pesticides.
• Multiple pesticide residues are extremely rare on Clean Fifteen™ vegetables. Only 5.5 percent of Clean Fifteen samples had two or more pesticides. 

This produce list of the lowest 25 is important, particularly as a guide to the fruit and vegetables you might choose to pay more for pesticide free or organic. Buy organic for the 20 worst and suit yourself for this group. Many of this group tested with no pesticide residues at all. More than 80 percent of mangoes, pineapples, kiwi fruit and papayas had no residues.

*A small amount of sweet corn, papaya and pumpkin is produced from GM seedstock. Buy organic varieties of these crops if you want to avoid GM produce.

The full list of 48 tested pieces produce is on the EWG full list. from worst to best.

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