A Shopper's Guide to Pesticides: What's New

San Francisco Chronicle, Tara Duggan
Published April 11, 2009

If you're not sure whether you can afford organic produce these days, a new guide to pesticides may be a helpful guidepost. The Environmental Working Group's Shopper's Guide to Pesticides is a wallet size checklist of "the Dirty Dozen" - 12 vegetables and fruits that carry the most pesticide residues after normal cleaning and peeling and the "Clean 15," or fruits and vegetables that were shown to have the lowest chemical levels. Both lists are based on data from almost 87,000 tests conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration. The idea is that if you have to make choices when buying organic, focus on the Dirty Dozen, which include a lot of fruits with thin, edible skins, such as strawberries, cherries, nectarines, apples, imported grapes and pears. Carrots, celery and lettuce are also on the no-no list. To download the guide or get more details, visit foodnews.org/walletguide.php.