Organic Vegetables
What foods are higher in pesticides?
In the search for information on organic
vegetables I have found the following facts to be of great
interest in the world of organic food.
There are certain types of fruit and vegetables that have
either higher or lower amounts of pesticides in them, I have
compiled a list to help you identify these fruits and vegetables.The
following foods tend to have
higher amounts of pesticides in them - listed in order of amounts
of pesticides found, from most to least:
|
Fruit |
Vegetables |
Peaches
Strawberries
Apples
Nectarines
Pears
Cherries
Red Raspberries
Imported Grapes |
Spinach
Bell Peppers
Celery
Potatoes |
Consistant with the two previous EWG investigations, fruit
topped the list of the consistently most contaminated fruits
and vegetables. Among the top six were four fruits, peaches leading
the list, then strawberries, apples and nectarines. Pears, cherries,
red raspberries, and imported grapes were the other four fruits
in the top 12. Among these eight fruits:
- Nectarines had the highest percentage of samples testing
positive for pesticides - 97.3%, followed by pears - 94.4% and
peaches - 93.7%
- Nectarines also had the highest likelihood of multiple pesticides
within one sample - 85.3% has two or more pesticide residues,
followed by peaches - 79.9%, and then cherries - 75.8%
- Peaches and raspberries had the most pesticides detected
on one single sample - nine pesticides on a single sample, followed
by strawberries and apples, which had eight pesticides found
on a single sample.
- Peaches had the most pesticides overall with some having
a combination of up to 45 pesticides found on the samples tested,
followed by raspberries with 39 pesticides and apples with 36
and strawberries also 36.
Among the vegetables above spinach, celery, potatoes, and
sweet bell peppers are the vegetables most likely to expose consumers
to pesticides;
- Celery had the highest of percentage of samples test positive
for pesticides - 94.5%, followed by spinach - 83.4 %, and potatoes
- 79.3%
- Celery also had the highest likelihood of multiple pesticides
on a single vegetable - 78% of samples, followed by spinach -
51.8%, and sweet bell peppers - 48.5%
- Spinach was the vegetable with the most pesticides detected
on a single sample - 10 found on one sample, followed by celery
- 9 found in one sample, and sweet bell peppers - also with 9.
- Sweet bell peppers were the vegetable with the most pesticides
overall - at 39, followed by spinach - at 36, and celery - at
29, then potatoes - also with 29.
These foods tend to have lower amounts of pesticides in them:
|
Fruits |
Vegetables |
Pineapples
Mangoes
Bananas
Kiwi Fruit
Papaya |
Cauliflower
Asparagus
Broccoli
Onions
Corn (sweet)
Peas (sweet)
Avocado |
The vegetables that were found to contain least amounts of
pesticides are sweet corn, avocado, cauliflower, asparagus, onions,
peas and broccoli:
- Nearly three-quarters, which is 73% of the pea and broccoli
samples had no detectable pesticides. Among the other vegetables
on the least-contaminated list, there were no detectable residues
on 90% or more of the samples.
- It is extremely rare to find multiple pesticide residues
on any of these least contaminated vegetables. Broccoli had the
highest likelihood, with a 2.6% chance of more than one pesticide
when ready to eat. Avocado and corn both had the lowest chance
with zero samples containing more than one pesticide when eaten.
- On any of these low-pesticide vegetables the greatest number
of pesticides detected on a single sample was three, as compared
to10 found on spinach, the most contaminated crop with the most
residues.
- Broccoli and onions both had the most pesticides found on
a single vegetable crop at up to 17 pesticides, but far fewer
than the most contaminated vegetable, sweet bell peppers, on
which 39 were found.
The five fruits least likely to have pesticide residues on
them are pineapples, mangoes, bananas, kiwi and papaya.
- Fewer than 10% of pineapple and mango samples had detectable
pesticides on them, and fewer than 1% of samples had more than
one pesticide residue.
- Although 53% of bananas had detectable pesticides, multiple
residues are rare with only 4.7% of samples containing more than
one residue. Kiwi and papaya had residues on 23.6% and 21.7%
of samples, respectively, and just 10.4% and 5.6% of samples,
respectively, had multiple pesticide residues.
The above information comes from FoodNews.org
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