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The Dutch ‘Pesticide Eating Guide’ shows that citrus fruits contain the most pesticides of all fruit and vegetables. In contrast, hardly any pesticides can be found on asparagus. With 2.7 types of pesticides, fruit generally scores worse than vegetables (1.4).

Fruit
Citrus fruits contain traces of an average of 4.2 types of pesticides, reports the Dutch Pesticide Action Network (PAN).
Strawberries and cherries come second and third with an average of 3.7 and 3.5 types of pesticides, respectively.
The cleanest fruits are kiwi and watermelon with 0.6 pesticide types.
Vegetables
Among vegetables, lettuce (3.6), pak choi and peppers (2 each) contain the most number of pesticide types on average.
Asparagus is the champion among vegetables; no traces of pesticides are actually found here.
Pregnant women
The measurements come from the Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA).
This information is certainly important for pregnant women and for families preparing their own food for their baby or child.
For jars of baby and toddler food, the maximum permitted amount of a pesticide in Europe is 0.01 mg/kg. This is much less than the common values in ordinary fruit and vegetables.
Legal thresholds
Of the food products surveyed, 73% were found to be contaminated with one or more pesticide residues, and 51% with multiple residues. One in five fruits and vegetables were found to contain one or more PFAS pesticides and 16% contain endocrine disruptors.

Although the vast majority of these measurements are within the legal thresholds. PAN Netherlands claims that these thresholds are too limited. Indeed, they are determined substance by substance, but do not take into account the ‘cocktail effect’, when people are exposed to a combination of these substances.

(FVDV for Tagtik/Source: Plusmagazine/Illustration picture: Pixabay)