The Dirty Dozen & Clean 15 fruit and vegetable lists provide useful information around whether you should buy organic or not. This debate has been going on for years and there are pros and cons on both sides of the argument.
For many, there is no right or wrong answer and often it comes down to affordability and accessibility.
As a health coach, I sometimes buy organic and sometimes I don’t. From my experience, the labels in the supermarket can also be confusing and unclear which doesn’t help.
It’s also worth noting that produce from smaller farms may well have been grown organically but hasn’t passed all the certification criteria to be labelled as organic. It’s so complicated!
The Dirty Dozen & Clean 15
Each year, the dirty dozen & clean 15 lists are updated. The idea is that the dirty dozen are those foods where if you can buy organic do, and for those on the clean 15 list it doesn’t matter. That’s because those listed in the dirty dozen are the most exposed to pesticides during the growing process. By contrast, the clean 15 are less likely to be contaminated with pesticide residues during conventional growing methods
So, take a screenshot of these lists on your phone so you always have them to hand when shopping!
Dirty Dozen: Strawberries, Spinach, Kale, Nectarines, Apples, Grapes, Peaches, Cherries, Pears, Tomatoes, Celery and Potatoes
Clean 15: Avocados, Sweetcorn, Pineapples, Cabbage, Onions, Peas, Papaya, Asparagus, Mangoes, Aubergines, Honeydew Melon, Kiwis, Cantaloupe Melon, Cauliflower and Broccoli.