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!