Eating more fruits and vegetables as part of a healthy diet is a message often touted by health and nutrition experts.
But does it matter which fruits and vegetables? Or whether those fruits or vegetables are organic or not? And does it make a difference if they were treated with pesticides?
An annual list created by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) is billed as helping shoppers identify specific fruits and vegetables. However, another group has concerns with the list recommendations and questions its methodology.
Since 2004, the EWG, a nonprofit advocacy group, has released its Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce, containing a list of fruits and vegetables the group calls the “Dirty Dozen,” or those deemed to have the most pesticide residue.Coming up with its annual list, the EWG said it reviewed pesticide residue data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) on many fruits and vegetables.“EWG’s Shopper’s Guide is a tool to inform consumers and help them with their produce shopping choices, with the goal of everyone eating more fruits and vegetables,” said EWG Vice President for Science Alexis Temkin, Ph.D., in a news release. “For people looking to reduce pesticide exposure, buying from the Clean Fifteen is a great place to start.”
This year, the EWG list also reflected the overall toxicity of the detected pesticides.
The Alliance for Food and Farming (AFF), which represents organic and conventional produce farmers, has long criticized EWG’s annual list.
“We strongly support consumer choice when shopping for fruits and vegetables,” said Teresa Thorne, AFF’s executive director, in an email to the Free Press. “But this choice should not be influenced by this list, which peer-reviewed research has shown is not scientifically credible, nor are its recommendations supportable.”
Instead, she said, consumers should be reassured by decades of toxicology studies, government data and nutrition research, which confirm the importance of a diet rich in fruits and vegetables on health as well as the exceptional safety of both organic and conventionally grown produce.
In addition, the AFF cited in its news release that the USDA’s Pesticide Data Program (PDP) found that more than “99% of foods sampled had residue levels well below EPA safety standards.”
Only 1 in 10 Americans eats enough fruits and vegetables daily, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“Consumers can and should disregard these types of lists,” said Dr. Sylvia Klinger, DBA, MS, RD, founder of Hispanic and Multicultural Nutrition Communications,” per AFF’s news release.
“Simply follow the advice of dietitians and health experts and choose to eat more fruits and vegetables, which are rich in the vitamins and antioxidants that help our bodies fight and prevent diseases, improve overall health and increase lifespan,” Klinger states in AFF’s news release.
Harmful pesticide samples
This year, the EWG list also reflected the overall toxicity of the detected pesticides.On its Dirty Dozen list, the group says “more than 9 in 10 samples of conventional, or non-organic produce contained residues of potentially harmful pesticides.”
Leading the Dirty Dozen list is spinach, followed by strawberries, a group of kale, collard and mustard greens, grapes and peaches rounded out the top five.
According to the EWG, more than 50 different pesticides were found on samples of the Dirty Dozen fruits and vegetables, except for cherries.
Blackberries and potatoes: New to the list
The group’s Dirty Dozen has two new additions — blackberries and potatoes.Nonorganic or conventional blackberries and potatoes came in at No. 10 and No. 12, respectively, on the 2025 list.
Blackberries, which were never before tested by the USDA, the EWG says, revealed “93% of samples had pesticide residues, for an average of four different pesticides per sample.” One of the four pesticides is cypermethrin, which the group says is classified as a possible human carcinogen by the Environmental Protection Agency.Potatoes were added to the list because the EWG found USDA data revealing samples containing chlorpropham, a sprout inhibitor. In 2019, the European Union banned chlorpropham, the EWG says, out of health concerns for farmers and consumers.
Produce deemed ‘clean’
The EWG’s annual list also features the group’s “Clean Fifteen” or fruits and vegetables deemed by them to contain the least pesticides.
The group touts that 60% of samples of conventionally grown fruit and vegetables on its Clean Fifteen list in the Environmental Working Group’s new Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce had no “detectable pesticide residues.”Consumers can follow these produce-washing steps provided by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration at safefruitsandveggies.com to help remove pesticide residue, dirt and bacteria.
EWG Dirty Dozen
EWG Clean 15
For a copy of the guide, go to ewg.org.
This article originally appeared on Farmers Advance: Shoppers guide lists a dozen fruits and vegetables with pesticide residue
Reporting by Susan Selasky / Farmers Advance
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
