Good Grocery Shopping | EWG’s Clean Fifteen and Dirty Dozen

Click the pic for your own PDF or iPhone download of the list!

I just received my grocery delivery for the week–avocados, celery, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, tahini, spinach, lettuce, kale, lemons, limes, pineapple, etc…–and wanted to share a tip with you. I would love to buy everything organic, and ultimately think that’s the best for the health of both people and the planet. That said, financial concerns are valid and the ability to purchase all organic, all the time is prohibitive for many. This is where a tool from the Environmental Working Group comes in handy. They have created a Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides and identified the Clean Fifteen and the Dirty Dozen. This guide helps you know where your organic dollars are the most valuable, and where you can buy conventional with less risk of pesticide contamination. As a car-free New York City dweller, I do much of my shopping online, and I often look up this useful guide while making my purchasing decisions. If you shop like most people do–that is, not from a computer screen–the Environmental Working Group has the hook up for you as well. You can download the card you see above as a free PDF, or straight on to your iPhone (cool, right?).

Here is some more information from EWG’s foodnews.org about their Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides:

Why Should You Care About Pesticides?

The growing consensus among scientists is that small doses of pesticides and other chemicals can cause lasting damage to human health, especially during fetal development and early childhood. Scientists now know enough about the long-term consequences of ingesting these powerful chemicals to advise that we minimize our consumption of pesticides.

What’s the Difference?

EWG research has found that people who eat the 12 most contaminated fruits and vegetables consume an average of 10 pesticides a day. Those who eat the 15 least contaminated conventionally-grown fruits and vegetables ingest fewer than 2 pesticides daily. The Guide helps consumers make informed choices to lower their dietary pesticide load.

Will Washing and Peeling Help?

Nearly all the studies used to create these lists assume that people rinse or peel fresh produce. Rinsing reduces but does not eliminate pesticides. Peeling helps, but valuable nutrients often go down the drain with the skin. The best approach: eat a varied diet, rinse all produce and buy organic when possible.

How Was This Guide Developed?

EWG analysts have developed the Guide based on data from nearly 87,000 tests for pesticide residues in produce conducted between 2000 and 2007 and collected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. You can find a detailed description of the criteria EWG used to develop these rankings and the complete list of fruits and vegetables tested at our dedicated website, www.foodnews.org.