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21 August 2017

Pesticide-residue-levels-on-fruit-and-vegetables

With hints of spring on the horizon, maybe it is timely to consider what we get along with our fruit and veg from the commercial green grocer, and decide what to grow at home if space is limited.

The Environmental Working Group is one body that checks pesticide residues and reports on which fruit and vegetables have the least and most. So this week we check out what might be OK to buy in the shops and what is safer to grow at home, but first




         Thought for the day

Any illness that can be treated by diet alone 
Should be treated by no other means.

       Maimonides – Physician around 1200 AD





Let us be clear.

Whenever possible, organic produce is best. Best for you, best for the soil, best for the animals and other critters like worms, best for the environment at large. However, it is not always easy or possible to obtain. Some are limited by finance (how long before organic and commercial produce cost the same???), some by a wide range of issues around availability.

And if you do have a home garden, maybe space is limited; maybe time or other factors limit what
can be grown.

So it may be helpful to know what residues are on common fruit and vegetables.

Then if choices need to be made, they can be well informed.


The Environmental Working Group was founded by Ken Green and is one of America’s foremost environmental protection agencies. It is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to protecting human health and the environment and produces an annual shopper’s guide. The guide lists which fruits and vegetables have the most pesticides and which have the fewest.

The worst? Sadly it is the good old apple. “An apple a day keeps the doctor away’? Maybe not if it is commercially grown!

Potatoes have more residue by weight than anything else.

A single grape sample and a capsicum sample contained 15 pesticides, while samples of cherry tomatoes, nectarines, peaches, imported snap peas and strawberries all showed 13 different pesticides.

The good news? Avocados for the second year running have the least residues with only 1% of all samples tested showing any residues. You can see the full list via THIS LINK

Here are the stand outs – good and bad…


The fruits and vegetables with the most pesticides 
- in descending order; worst at the top


1. Apples
2. Peaches
3. Nectarines
4. Strawberries
5. Grapes
6. Celery
7. Spinach
8. Sweet bell peppers (capsicum)
9. Cucumber
10. Cherry tomatoes
11. Snap peas (imported)
12. Potatoes
13.   Hot peppers
14.   Kale / Collard greens



Fruits and vegetables with the least pesticides 
- best at the top...

1. Avocado
2. Sweet corn
3. Pineapples
4. Cabbage
5. Sweet peas (frozen)
6. Onion
7. Asparagus
8. Mango
9. Papayas (pawpaw)
10. Kiwi
11. Eggplant
12. Grapefruit
13. Cantaloupe (rock melon)
14. Cauliflower
15. Sweet potato

Remember, if at all possible, buy or even better, grow organic; 
but if choices need to be made, maybe these list help inform those choices. 

And get those veggie gardens on the move for Spring...

Happy, healthy eating. Enjoy!


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1 comment:

  1. Hi Ian

    Thanks again for your post. Just thought I would share this idea that came down through generations of orchardists who live in the Yarra Valley. When eating apples or any other fruit they would cut off and not eat the "puddle" part of the apple just around the stalk. This is where water will collect and stay until it evaporates. This is where residues from any spraying will concentrate. So if non-organic apples are on the menu this may be helpful.

    Best

    Michael

    ReplyDelete