The largest share of this market comes from organic fruit and vegetables.
Of course, the main drawback to organic food is that it can cost considerably more than conventional alternatives, and depending where you shop, organics can be difficult to find.
Each year, the Environmental Working Group creates the USDA EWG’s Shoppers Guide to Pesticides in Produce. The guide ranks 48 fruits and vegetables by pesticide contamination level using research from the USDA Pesticide Testing Program and the Food and Drug Administration. The full list is available at EWG.org/FoodNews.
From the list of 48, EWG further narrows down the Dirty Dozen and the Clean Fifteen — the foods most and least likely to contain pesticide residue.
If you can’t afford to go all-organic, these lists are a great place to start.
