Just in time for National Nutrition Month, which focuses on the importance of making informed food choices and developing sound eating and physical activity habits, the 2024 Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce has come out with its annual “Dirty Dozen” and “Clean Fifteen” food lists.
Nearly 75 percent of non-organic fresh produce sold in the U.S. contains residues of potentially harmful pesticides, the Shopper’s Guide finds. In this year’s guide, blueberries and green beans join the list of the 12 fruits and vegetables sampled that have the highest traces of pesticides.
The Dirty Dozen
Approximately 95% of nonorganic strawberries, leafy greens such as spinach and kale, collard and mustard greens, grapes, peaches and pears tested by the USDA and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) contained detectable levels of pesticides.
Nectarines, apples, bell and hot peppers, cherries, blueberries and green beans rounded out the list of the 12 most contaminated samples of produce. It’s dubbed the “Dirty Dozen” by the Environmental Working Group, or EWG, an environmental and health advocacy organization that has produced the annual report since 2004.
Health Effects from Consuming Pesticide Residue
Pesticides have been linked in studies to preterm births, congenital malformations such as neural tube defects, spontaneous abortions and an increase in genetic damage in humans. Exposure to pesticides has also been associated with lower sperm concentrations, heart disease, cancer and other disorders.
Farmworkers who use or are exposed to pesticides are at highest risk, according to studies. A 2022 meta-analysis found workers exposed to pesticides were nearly five times as likely to have DNA damage while a February study found children exposed at an early age showed poorer neurodevelopment from infancy to adolescence.
The Clean Fifteen
But wait, it’s not all bad news. Avocados, sweet corn, pineapples, onions and papayas led the “Clean Fifteen” list of conventionally grown produce with the least amount of trace pesticides — nearly 65% of the fruits and veggies in that grouping had no detectable pesticide residues, according to the report released Wednesday.
Rounding out the “Clean Fifteen” were frozen sweet peas, asparagus, honeydew melons, kiwis, cabbage, watermelons, mushrooms, mangoes, sweet potatoes and carrots.
How It’s Tested
Each year, a rotating list of domestic and imported produce is tested by US Department of Agriculture and US Food and Drug Administration. Staffers at the USDA Pesticide Data Program wash, peel and scrub fruits and vegetables as consumers would, while workers at the FDA only brush dirt off the produce. Then the fruits and vegetables are tested for more than 250 different pesticides and the results are posted online.
For 2024, EWG researchers examined testing data on 47,510 samples of 46 nonorganic fruits and vegetables, with the majority of testing from the USDA. An analysis of that data found traces of 254 pesticides in all fruits and vegetables analyzed, with 209 of those chemicals on produce in the “Dirty Dozen” list.
“We find that what ends up on one list versus the other reflects how those fruits and vegetables are grown,” said Alexis Temkin, EWG’s senior toxicologist. “Avocados, for example, aren’t pesticide intensive, while strawberries grow very close to the ground and have a lot of pests.”
Legal Levels vs. Safe Levels
About 70% of nonorganic produce tested by the USDA and FDA have pesticide levels within the legal limits allowed by the US Environmental Protection Agency, according to the EWG report. That fact makes the report misleading, said Carl Winter, emeritus professor of cooperative extension at the University of California, Davis.
“The dose makes the poison, not its presence or its absence, and that dose determines the potential for harm. In many cases you’d have to be exposed to a million times more than what we’re exposed to before you’d even see any effects,” said Winter, speaking on behalf of the Alliance on Food and Farming, which represents organic and conventional farmers.
However, “legal levels do not mean safe levels,” Temkin said in response. She pointed to times when regulators allowed potentially dangerous chemicals, such as the pesticide DCPA, to remain on the market long after scientific research had raised concerns. The herbicide was linked to thyroid concerns for years before the EPA told the public the chemical posed “significant risks to human health” in 2023.
Fungicides Tested for the First Time
For the first time, EWG analysts looked at reported levels of fungicides, one form of pesticide used to kill fungal diseases such as powdery mildew. “Four out of five of the most frequently found pesticides on the ‘Dirty Dozen’ list were fungicides, and they were also found in particularly high concentrations,” Temkin said.
Two fungicides — fludioxonil and pyrimethanil — had the highest concentration on the “Dirty Dozen” list of any other pesticide, according to the report. Fludioxonil was found on 90% of peaches and nearly 30% of all “Dirty Dozen” samples, according to the report. Pyrimethanil was found on 65% of pear, 30% of apple, 27% of grape, 26% of strawberry and 24% of nectarine samples.
“Fungicides are often applied after harvest to keep produce mold-free on its way to market. That’s likely why the concentrations were so high on some samples – higher than other pesticides applied earlier in the growing season,” Temkin said. “The application of the fungicide is also closer to the time the produce is put on store shelves and consumers are eating them.”
How You Can Reduce Pesticide Residue in Your Food
Cleaning fruits and vegetables before eating does reduce pesticide levels, but “no washing method is 100% effective for removing all pesticide residues,” according to the National Pesticide Information Center.
Starting with clean hands, wash and rub produce under running water instead of soaking to remove the most pesticide, the center recommends on its website.
Don’t use soap, detergent or a commercial soak or scrub, however, as they have not been proven to be any more effective, according to the FDA. Dry the produce with a clean cloth or paper towel to further reduce bacteria that may be present.
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