Better news is that all produce is not contaminated equally and there are many that have much lower levels of pesticides than the aforementioned dirty dozen.
12 Least Contaminated:
- Onions
- Avocado
- Sweet Corn (Frozen)
- Pineapples
- Mango
- Asparagus
- Sweet Peas (Frozen)
- Kiwi Fruit
- Bananas
- Cabbage
- Broccoli
- Papaya
Other produce found to be cleaner were grapefruit, eggplant, cantaloupe, cauliflower and sweet potatoes. Avocados were the cleanest with only 1 percent of the samples showing any detectable pesticides, while 89 percent of pineapples, 82 percent of kiwi, 80 percent of papayas, 88 percent of mango and 61 percent of cantaloupe had no signs of residues.
Despite the higher prices for organic produce sales spiked from $5.4 billion in 2005 to $15 billion in 2014. Here are a few of the comparisons between organic and conventional vegetables at a major supermarket.
Organic Kale ($2.99lb) Conventional Kale ($1.79lb)
Organic Collard Greens ($2.99lb) Conventional Collard Greens ($1.79lb)
Organic Celery ($3.49 each) Conventional Celery ($2.99 each)
Organic Spinach ($2.99lb) Conventional Spinach ($2.29lb)
Organic Cucumbers ($1.50 each) Conventional Cucumbers ($.99each)
For more on EWG’s 2015 Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce, click here.