---
title: "The Dirty Dozen: Which produce have the most pesticides?"
date: 2012-06-18T23:28:31Z
modified: 2012-06-18T23:28:31Z
permalink: "https://elizabethyarnell.com/the-dirty-dozen-produce-with-pesticides/"
type: post
status: publish
excerpt: ""
wpid: 2235
categories:
  - Allergen-Free Recipes
  - Living Naturally
  - Nutrition in the News
tags:
  - apple juice colon cleanse
  - Dirty Dozen in produce
  - "EWG's shopping guide"
  - fruits and pesticides
  - GMO sweet corn
  - pesticide load on vegetables
author: Elizabeth
---

With all of the special pricing on berries I’ve been seeing in grocery stores lately, it seems like a good time to review the Dirty Dozen when it comes to pesticides on your produce. Choosing organically grown options of these most contaminated fruits and vegetables will substantially reduce your pesticide intake.

The [Dirty Dozen Plus](http://www.ewg.org/foodnews/summary/ "dirty dozen produce") is compiled each year by the [Environmental Working Group](http://www.ewg.org "ewg") as one of the many public services they offer for conscious consumers. Pesticide exposure can have detrimental effects on your nervous system, and you never know what can tip you across your personal tolerance threshold and into hypersensitivity reactions or autoimmune responses. Our modern world is toxic; we’re lucky to have the independent analysis of the EWG looking out for our public health as the government does not.

The EWG found the most pesticide contamination the the following dozen plus fruits and veggies.

- Apples
- Celery
- Sweet bell peppers
- Peaches
- Strawberries
- Imported nectarines
- Grapes
- Spinach
- Lettuce
- Cucumbers
- Domestic blueberries
- Potatoes
- Green beans
- Kale/greens
- Sweet corn (because unless it says “organic,” most domestic sweet corn is unlabeled GMO corn and unsafe to eat)

Get the whole [2012 EWG Shoppers Guide here](http://www.ewg.org/foodnews/summary/ "ewg shoppers guide to pesticides in produce").