--- title: Pesticides Produce Organic Food: Here's The Dirtiest Produce description: Apples topped the list of produce with the most pesticides followed by peaches and nectarines, according to a new report. canonical: https://time.com/3721985/produce-pesticides/ author: Justin Worland article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-02-25T19:21:57.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T04:42:07.490Z article:section: Health og:title: Pesticides Produce Organic Food: Here's The Dirtiest Produce og:description: Nearly two-thirds of produce tested contained pesticide og:url: https://time.com/3721985/produce-pesticides/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd08006efb1164221/698780f2e53abaab304d7c45/pesticide-plane.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5031 og:image:height: 2830 og:image:alt: 697685-001 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Pesticides Produce Organic Food: Here's The Dirtiest Produce twitter:description: Nearly two-thirds of produce tested contained pesticide twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd08006efb1164221/698780f2e53abaab304d7c45/pesticide-plane.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Here's Which Produce Has the Most Pesticides > Sponsored content. 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Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators.  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Feb 25, 2015 7:21 PM UTC  Plane spraying pesticide Plane spraying pesticideGetty Images  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Feb 25, 2015 7:21 PM UTC Apples tops the list of produce with the most pesticides, according to a new [report](http://www.ewg.org/foodnews/dirty%5Fdozen%5Flist.php), followed by peaches and nectarines. Overall, nearly two-thirds of produce tested contained pesticides, but the prevalence varied greatly between types, according to the report from the Environmental Working Group (EWG). More than 95% of the apples, peaches and nectarines tested contained pesticides. “We see consistent differences between foods,” said EWG senior analyst Sonya Lunder. “This is an important piece of information for people who want to eat zero pesticides, people who are concerned about eating pesticides who maybe live in an area where they don’t get organic food or can’t afford it.” A number of factors determine which produce farmers spray with pesticides. Farmers tend to use pesticides for fruit with sensitive skin like peaches and nectarines, she said. On the other hand, the skin or peel on produce like avocados, pineapples and bananas largely prevents pesticides from affecting consumers who eat them. Avocados, sweet corn and pineapples topped the list of produce with fewest pesticides. The report looked at a number of factors in United States Department of Agriculture data to develop the rankings including the percentage of a type of produce that tested positive for pesticides, the weight of the pesticides and the average number of pesticides. Consuming produce with multiple pesticides may have “synergistic effects” on the human body, said Lunder. The report is not meant to discourage consumers from eating fruits and vegetables, Lunder said. In fact, the EWG’s database of 80,000 food items finds that produce rates among the healthiest items in the supermarket. “We know everyone needs to eat fruits and vegetables and we would never say this is a reason to choose something else instead,” she said. “This is important tool for understanding and making informed choices about the food you purchase.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3721985/produce-pesticides/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3721985/produce-pesticides/"},"headline":"Here's Which Produce Has the Most Pesticides","datePublished":"2015-02-25T19:21:57.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T04:42:07.490Z","description":"Nearly two-thirds of produce tested contained pesticide","url":"https://time.com/3721985/produce-pesticides/","keywords":["Diet & Nutrition","Pesticides","Produce"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd08006efb1164221/698780f2e53abaab304d7c45/pesticide-plane.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Justin Worland","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/justin-worland/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd08006efb1164221/698780f2e53abaab304d7c45/pesticide-plane.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"697685-001","caption":"697685-001","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/dietnutrition/","name":"Diet & Nutrition"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3721985/produce-pesticides/","name":"Here's Which Produce Has the Most Pesticides"}}]}] ```