Here Are The 10 Foods Most Likely To Be Covered In Pesticides

The Environmental Working Group, a research and advocacy organization, released its 2014 report on the non-organic produce that's most likely to be covered in pesticides. This ranking is based on pesticide levels that remain on food after washing or peeling (depending on how it's usually eaten).

Organic produce is almost always significantly more expensive, so you can use this guide to decide when buying organic will make the biggest difference.

The list itself has been called "egregiously misleading" because it doesn't elucidate the levels or kinds of chemicals detected on the food - two of the most important things to understand.

Specifically, the pesticide levels detected in these foods are almost always lower than the EPA's allowed levels, and we don't know how much damage these chemicals do in the amounts they're found in food. In the government's latest report, which the EWG uses to compile their list, 3% of samples did not comply with federal guidelines, which some argue are not stringent enough to protect consumers.

That being said, here are the 10 fruits and vegetables with the highest levels of pesticides:

The full list of tested foods is available here; the lowest levels of pesticides were detected in avocados, corn, and pineapple.

Among their findings:

• Every sample of imported nectarines and 99 percent of apple samples tested positive for at least one pesticide residue.
• The average potato had more pesticides by weight than any other food.
• A single grape sample contained 15 pesticides. Single samples of celery, cherry tomatoes, imported snap peas and strawberries showed 13 different pesticides apiece.

To create the ranking, the Environmental Working Group analyzed tests of 32,000 samples from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the FDA. About 65% of those samples tested positive for some pesticide residue. The EWG compared the foods using six measures:

• Percent of samples tested with detectable pesticides
• Percent of samples with two or more detectable pesticides
• Average number of pesticides found on a single sample
• Average amount of pesticides found, measured in parts per million
• Maximum number of pesticides found on a single sample
• Total number of pesticides found on the commodity

Not everyone thinks the ranking is useful

Based on the criteria above, it's clear that the EWG don't look at the toxicity of these pesticides, just the number and amount. This means the list is not enough on its own to assess how toxic these pesticides are or whether they are at levels high enough to cause harm.

Some critics, allied with the fruit and vegetable industry, have said that the EWG's list is published "without regard to credible, accepted standards for determining risk and without peer review."

And the Department of Agriculture has asserted that in the U.S., "food does not pose a safety concern based upon pesticide residues."

But the EWG does not accept the government's analysis as the final word. "It's true that most samples meet legal limits every year, but legal doesn't always mean safe," Sonya Lunder of EWG told Food Safety News.

Pesticide risks

While the risks of a pesticide depend on how much is consumed and how toxic that particular pesticide is, it's hard to say exactly how much is safe - and levels that are safe in adults may be harmful to children. "Studies show that pesticides can cause health problems, such as birth defects, nerve damage, cancer, and other effects that might occur over a long period of time," the EPA notes.

Pesticides are regulated, the EPA writes, "to ensure that their use does not pose unreasonable risks to human health or the environment." But environmental groups and consumer advocates have contended that the EPA's testing and approval process is insufficient and full of dangerous loopholes.

"Recent investigations... reveal a deeply flawed system, indicating that the public's trust is misplaced," the Natural Resources Defense Council noted in a recent report. "The government has allowed the majority of pesticides onto the market without a public and transparent process and in some cases, without a full set of toxicity tests."