Dirty Dozen List Update

If you are interested in buying organic products, I wanted to let you know the new Dirty Dozen for 2011 has been released.  This is a list of produce items that tend to have the highest levels of pesticide residue (even after being washed and peeled).  So if you are interested in organics, these products are the ones that you want to focus on:
Here is the updated list of Dirty Dozen items:

• Apples
• Celery
• Strawberries
• Peaches
• Spinach
• Nectarines — imported
• Grapes — imported
• Sweet Bell Peppers
• Potatoes
• Blueberries — domestic
• Lettuce
• Kale/Collard Greens

Those are the products you want to try to look for in organics if possible.  I tend to focus on berries, grapes and lettuce myself and I found it interesting that potatoes are also included in the list!
The Clean 15 include:

• Onions
• Sweet Corn
• Pineapples
• Avocado
• Asparagus
• Sweet Peas
• Mangoes
• Eggplant
• Cantaloupe — domestic
• Kiwi
• Cabbage
• Watermelon
• Sweet Potatoes
• Grapefruit
• Mushrooms

So that list reflects the produce items that have the lowest amount of pesticide residue. So it isn’t as important to get those products in organic which is great news because many of those products are super cheap in stores right now!

You can print a handy little list to keep with you of the Dirty Dozen and Clean 15 here.