The Clean Fifteen

• May 02, 2012  |
• by The Family Dinner

Most of you probably know the fruits and vegetables with the highest amount of pesticide residue (see page 149 of The Family Dinner book for a list of 13 fruits and veggies you should buy organic). That list includes items such as apples, celery, and strawberries, which are the three worst offenders.

It’s always better to minimize exposure to toxic chemicals, and to buy organic as much as possible, but sometimes it’s hard to find a wide variety of organic items in the regular supermarket. In that case, try to steer toward those fruits and vegetables with the lowest amount of detectable pesticide residue.

The Environmental Working Group, in addition to publishing its Dirty Dozen items you should buy organic, also provides a handy list of the Clean 15, the items with the least amount of pesticide.

At the top of that list are conventional onions, which according to the group are a clean crop, with less than 1 percent of samples containing any pesticides. Other items on the list include sweet corn, pineapples, avocado, asparagus and sweet peas.

For the full list of the Clean 15, visit the EWG’s Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides. Or download the guide as a PDF.