The fifth edition of Environmental Working Group’s Shoppers’ Guide to Pesticides is here. This includes the latest government data on pesticide residues. It is helpful to know which conventionally grown foods are basically clean, and which ones are the most important to buy organically. From their website you can download a printable pocket-sized guide, and you can see the complete list of the 47 foods that were tested.

Below is the Shoppers’ Guide and additional information from EWG:

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.

Not all foods are created equal. Some foods are grown with more pesticides than others. Some foods absorb pesticides more readily than others. Most of us want to minimize our exposure and our family’s exposure to chemical pesticides. Buying organic produce whenever possible also protects the safety of farm workers from toxic exposure, and protects against the contamination of topsoil, ground water and the environment in general.

While we might not be able to buy all organic all the time, thanks to the Environmental Working Group (EWG), we can make informed choices about which foods are the most (and least) important to eat organic. In fact, EWG found that “consumers could cut their pesticide exposure by almost 90 percent by avoiding the most contaminated fruits and vegetables and eating the least contaminated [or organic] instead.”

To print a pocket-sized version EWG’s Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce, including the lists of the 12 most contaminated, and the 12 least contaminated foods CLICK HERE!

To see the full data set compiled by EWG based on the results of nearly 51,000 tests for pesticides on produce collected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, CLICK HERE!