STRAWBERRIES continue to lead the “Dirty Dozen” list of fruits and veggies that contain the highest levels of pesticides, followed by spinach, a trio of greens — kale, collard and mustard — nectarines, apples, and grapes, according to the Environmental Working Group’s 2021 Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce.

Cherries came in seventh on the list of the 46 most contaminated foods, followed by peaches, pears, bell and hot peppers, celery and tomatoes.

Avoiding pesticides is especially critical for babies and children, experts say, because of the damage they can cause to the developing brain. A 2020 study found an increase in IQ loss and intellectual disability in children due to exposure to organophosphates, a common class of pesticides.

The report also offers consumers a list of the “Clean Fifteen” — foods with the least amount of pesticides. Nearly 70 percent of the “Clean” fruit and vegetable samples had no pesticide residues, making them a safer choice, EWG says.

“Multiple pesticide residues are extremely rare on Clean Fifteen vegetables,” the EWG report stated. “Only 8 percent of Clean Fifteen fruit and vegetable samples had two or more pesticides.”

Vegetables on this list include sweet corn, onions, frozen peas, eggplant, asparagus, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower and mushrooms.

The guide’s cleanest fruits include pineapple, papaya, kiwi, honeydew melon, cantaloupe and avocado. Avocados and sweet corn were the least contaminated, the report found, with less than 2 percent of samples showing detectable pesticide residue.

“It’s a really great resource,” said Jane Houlihan, the national director of science and health for Healthy Babies Bright Futures, a coalition of advocates committed to reducing babies’ exposures to neurotoxic chemicals.

“By nature pesticides are toxic, and doing what you can to reduce exposures is a really good idea to protect your family’s health,” said Houlihan, who was not involved with the report.

The EWG report, issued yearly since 2004, uses U.S. Department of Agriculture test data to rank 46 foods that are the most and least contaminated with pesticide residues. The agency prepares the food as consumers would — washing, peeling or scrubbing — before testing each item. The USDA does not sample all 46 foods each year, so EWG pulls results from the most recent testing period.

A new entry on this year’s list was collard greens and mustard greens, which joined kale in the No. 3 spot. Tests found these vegetables often contained the pesticide DCPA, classified by the EPA as a possible human carcinogen. It was banned by the European Union in 2009.

“The other new big thing on the list is bell and hot peppers, which came in at No.10. They haven’t been tested since 2011-2012, and the USDA found 115 different pesticides on last year’s pepper crops. This is the most, by far, of any of the crops tested,” said EWG toxicologist Thomas Galligan.

Peppers, along with “Dirty Dozen” members oranges, apples, grapes and cherries, are often contaminated with chlorpyrifos, a pesticide originally created as an alternative to DDT.

“Chlorpyrifos is neurotoxic and harms children’s brain development,” Houlihan said.

While kid-favorite citrus fruits like clementines and tangerines ranked No. 20 and oranges came in at No. 24 on the overall list, EWG did independent testing on citrus fruits this year, and found two fungicides, imazalil and thiabendazole, were widespread.

“Evidence exists that they have the potential to disrupt the hormone system, and one is suspected of causing cancer,” Houlihan said.

Imazalil, a fungicide used after harvest to keep fruits from molding on the way to market, was found on almost 90 percent of all the grapefruit, oranges, mandarins and lemons tested early this year by an independent laboratory commissioned by EWG. The USDA found the same fungicide on over 95 percent of tangerines tested in 2019.

(SD-Agencies)