Pesticides are frequently used to help improve the yield of fruits and vegetables grown both domestically and abroad. While these chemicals do a good job of controlling insect infestation, little is known about the long-term effects of exposure to them. Some data suggest that small doses of pesticides and other chemicals can adversely affect people, especially during fetal development and childhood. In general experts recommend reducing your exposure to pesticides as much as possible.

However, you can’t tell which fruits and vegetables may have a high pesticide load by just looking at them. Thus, in their publication Food News, the not-for-profit Environmental Working Group (EWG) released a list of the most pesticide-laden produce in America. The produce ranking was developed by analysts at the EWG based on the results of nearly 43,000 tests for pesticides on produce collected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration between 2000 and 2004. They calculated a pesticide score based on criteria which included the percent of samples that tested positive for pesticides, the percent of samples with more than one pesticide, the average amount of pesticide found on each type of produce, and the total number of different pesticides found on all samples of a given type of produce. The top 10 worst offenders follow, with their pesticide score listed in parentheses.

The top 10 most pesticide-contaminated fruits and vegetables are:

1. Peaches (100)
2. Apples (96)
3. Sweet Bell Peppers (86)
4. Celery (85)
5. Nectarines (84)
6. Strawberries (83)
7. Cherries (75)
8. Lettuce (69)
9. Grapes – Imported (68)
10. Pears (65)

The EWG suggests washing fruits and vegetables thoroughly to reduce pesticide exposure, but they also note that these test results were largely based on produce that has already been washed. When possible, it is a good idea to eat organic produce that is grown without conventional pesticides, especially for the produce with the highest pesticides scores.

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_{Source: Environmental Working Group, Food News, Shoppers Guide to Pesticides in Produce. http://www.foodnews.org/fulldataset.php}

_{Photo: theilr, Flickr, Creative Commons}