Pesticides on Fruits and Vegetables, when to eat organic

Excerpts from an article by Laura Dolson on About.com

If you want to maximize the good you do to your body while minimizing the cost, you could choose to purchase organic produce for the fruits and vegetables which tend to have the most pesticides in the United States.

This list was compiled by the Environmental Working Group from over 100,000 studies by the USDA on 46 fruits and vegetables. The top 12 are often called “The Dirty Dozen”, but this information will help you in deciding where you may want to make the cutoff.

Bear in mind that there are many fruits and vegetables that are not on this list.The scores given are a composite of numbers and amounts of pesticides found in the studies. The “worst”, peaches, was given a score of 100, and the others were calibrated from that. The fruits and vegetables were washed or peeled as most people use the produce – for example, apples were washed, bananas and oranges peeled.

Pesticides on Popular Produce
Peaches – 100
Strawberries – 89
Apples – 88
Spinach – 85
Nectarines – 85
Celery - 83
Pears – 80
Cherries – 76
Potatoes – 67
Sweet Bell Peppers – 66
Raspberries – 66
Grapes – Imported from outside U.S. – 64
Carrots – 57
Green Beans – 57
Hot Peppers – 55
Oranges – 53
Apricots – 51
Cucumbers – 51
Tomatoes – 48
Collard Greens – 48
Grapes – U.S. grown
Turnip Greens – 41
Honeydew Melons – 40
Lettuce – 40
Kale – 39
Mushrooms - 36
Cantaloupe – 36
Sweet Potatoes – 35
Grapefruit – 34
Winter Squash – 34
Blueberries – 30
Watermelon – 27
Plums – 26
Tangerines – 25
Cabbage – 25
Papaya – 23
Kiwi – 23
Bananas – 19
Broccoli – 18
Onions – 17
Asparagus – 16
Sweet Peas – 13
Mango – 12
Cauliflower – 10
Pineapples – 6
Avocado – 4
Sweet Corn – 1