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Strategic Organic Shopping

vegetablesNow that we’re all more cost-conscious, how many of you are still buying organic vegetables?

If you’ve had to cut back but would prefer not to, you may be interested in some advice I found in last Sunday’s Observer Magazine about shopping strategically and only buying organic versions of certain fruit and veg.

In a nutshell; the US Environmental Working Group published a report in October 2008, which ranks fruits and vegetables by the amount of pesticides found on each and was based on testing 43,000 products.

According to this report, the ‘dirtiest‘ non-organic fruits and veg are:

  • peaches
  • apples
  • sweet bell peppers
  • celery
  • nectarines
  • strawberries
  • cherries
  • lettuce
  • imported grapes
  • pears
  • spinach
  • potatoes

The ‘cleanest‘ are:

  • broccoli
  • asparagus
  • onions
  • avocados
  • pineapples
  • mangos
  • frozen sweetcorn
  • frozen peas
  • asparagus
  • kiwis
  • bananas
  • cabbage

What do you think? How important is organic produce to you?

3 Comments

  1. This is really helpful! Darnit- it’s all the yummy (and expensive) fruit that are dirtiest.

  2. I’ve heard that more watery produce holds more fertiliser and pesticide residue, and the list makes sense when you look at it from that perspective.

    Mushrooms are also prone to soak up anything around them as their roots cover a huge area underground.

  3. Your site was a real eye opener to me. I’m glad we grow a lot of our own organic vegetables.