Apples Top EWG List of Most Contaminated Produce for Fourth Year
The Environmental Working Group (EWG) has issued its 2014 Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce, which ranks pesticide contamination in “48 popular fruits and vegetables based on an analysis of more than 32,000 samples tested by the U.S. Department of Agriculture [USDA] and the federal Food and Drug Administration [FDA].”
Apples topped this year’s annual “Dirty Dozen™” list of most pesticide-contaminated produce for the fourth year. Other fruits and vegetables in the Dirty Dozen include strawberries, grapes, celery, peaches, spinach, sweet bell peppers, imported nectarines, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, potatoes and imported snap peas. Kale, collard greens and hot peppers were highlighted in a section called “Dirty Dozen-Plus™,” as items “frequently contaminated with insecticides that are particularly toxic to human health.”
Avocados topped this year’s “Clean Fifteen™” list—fruits and vegetables with the least amount of residues, with only 1 percent showing any detectable pesticides. Other items on that list include corn, pineapples, cabbage, frozen sweet peas, onions, asparagus, mangoes, papayas, kiwi, eggplant, grapefruit, cantaloupe, cauliflower and sweet potatoes. See Environmental Working Group News Release, April 29, 2014.
Issue 522
