2022 Dirty Dozen & Clean 15 (Save Those Lists!) (2023)

(Updated May 2022) This post includes the new 2022 Dirty Dozen and Clean 15 lists with images that you can save to your phone or device to have handy when you go shopping. Take a screenshot (or tap and hold) to save it to your phone, or right-click to download.

I'm often asked if I always buy everything organic, but I'll be the first to tell you that health coaches are definitely not always perfect!

While I try my best to eat mostly organic and use organic foods when Idevelop recipes, it is almost impossible to only eat foods labeled as organic.

In addition, buying organic fruit and vegetables is not always necessary.

What really matters is how the food was grown. Some smaller farms apply all organic practices but have not yet gone through the full organic certification process as this can be expensive for a small business. Meet your local farms and stalls at the farmers market and ask about farm customs.

When I'm shopping, if I meet a farmer who grows an item in Dirty Dozen but uses all organic farming methods and isn't big enough to go through organic certification yet, I usually still buy from them. Small businesses are the lifeblood of most economies! Support her if you can.

When I shop at traditional grocery stores, I use the Dirty Dozen and Clean 15 lists to choose which products to buy organic.

You may have heard of Dirty Dozen and Clean 15, but you may not know that the lists are updated every year.

Check out the full list below and save the handy pics I've made for you on your phone for convenient shopping. The list is usually updated once a year. The last update was in 2021. We will update this post once the new list for 2022 comes out.

The Environmental Working Group (EWG) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to protecting human health and the environment. Among other things, they research what is in our tap water, the safety of our cosmetics, genetically modified organisms (GMO/GE) and the amounts of pesticides in and on our food.

Updated annually, the EWG Shopper's Guide to Pesticides in Produce™ (aka "Dirty Dozen" and "Clean 15") rates pesticide residues in 47 popular fruits and vegetables. The guide is based on results from more than 35,200 samples tested by the US Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration.

The 15 foods with the fewest pesticides are called the Clean 15, while the 12 foods with the most pesticides are called the Dirty Dozen. These lists are fantastic to take with you on your shopping trips to know when to buy organic and when it's okay to buy conventional.

And luckily for us, avocados are at the top of the Clean 15 list!

Here are the most recent Dirty Dozen and Clean 15 lists:

The Dirty Dozen (2022)

Buy these organic whenever possible - Updated 2021; The list for 2022 comes later this year:

1. strawberries
2. Spinach
3. Kale, cabbage and mustard
4. Nektarinen
5. apples
6. grapes
7. Bell & Peppers
8. cherries
9. peaches
10. pears
11. Saddlery
12. tomatoes

The Clean 15 (2022)

These can be purchased conventionally (non-organic) - Updated 2021; The list for 2022 comes later this year:

1. Avocados
2. More*
3. Pineapple
4. onions
5. Papaya*
6. Sugar snap peas (frozen)
7. asparagus
8. Honeydew melons
9. Kiwi
10. Kohl
11. Mushrooms
12. Cantaloup-Melone
13. Mangos
14. watermelon
15. sweet potatoes

*Per EWG, a small amount of sweetcorn, papaya, and summer squash sold in the United States are made from genetically modified seeds. Buy organic varieties of these plants if you want to avoid genetically modified products.

Complete list of pesticides in production

Below is the full list of what falls in the gray area in between that I'm looking at.

For me, the closer the products are to the Clean 15, the better I feel when I buy conventional.

I also look at the price and if the organic version doesn't cost much more then I buy organic. Bananas are a good example - although they didn't make the Clean 15, they're close. Typically, organic bananas are about twenty cents more per pound at my grocery store, so I still buy the organic bananas. But mangoes and watermelon can get pricey, and they're so close to the Clean 15 that I'm comfortable with the conventional ones.

Cucumbers and blueberries are close to the dirty dozen I look for in organic varieties.

Here's the full list. You can save or pin this image to Pinterest (or tap and hold to save to your phone) or copy the typed list below. The list starts in order, beginning with the most amounts of pesticides at the top (the dirty dozen is given inrot), on the fewest pesticides (the Clean 15 are given ingreen.)

1. strawberries
2. Spinach
3. Kale, cabbage and mustard
4. Nektarinen
5. apples
6. grapes
7. Paprika & Paprika
8. cherries
9. peaches
10. pears
11. Saddlery
12. tomatoes
13. potatoes
14. blueberries
15. cherry tomatoes
16. winter squash
17. Salat
18. cucumbers
19. tangerines
20. Green beans
21. plums
22. Broccoli
23. Aubergine
24. raspberries
25. summer squash*
26. Grapefruit
27. Snappeas
28. oranges
29. carrots
30. bananas
31. cauliflower
32. sweet potatoes
33. watermelon
34. Mangos
35. Cantaloup-Melone
36. Mushrooms
37. Kohl
38. Kiwi
39. Honeydew melons
40. asparagus
41. Sugar snap peas (frozen)
42. Papaya*
43. onions
44. Pineapple
45. More*
46. Avocados

You can read and download the full EWG report and listshere. Below are the highlights of the most important results:

2022 Summary of the most important results of the Dirty Dozen

• More than 90 percent of samples from strawberries, apples, cherries, spinach, nectarines and grapes tested positive for residues of two or more pesticides.
• Kale, collards and mustard, and hot peppers and peppers had the most detected pesticides, totaling 103 and 101 pesticides, respectively.
• A single sample of kale, collard greens, and mustard greens had up to 21 different pesticides.
• On average, spinach samples had 1.8 times more pesticide residues by weight than any other crop tested.
• The pesticide most commonly found on collards, mustard, and kale is DCPA — sold under the brand name Dacthal — which was classified as a possible human carcinogen by the EPA and banned by the EU in 2009.
• Other problematic pesticides on greens include potentially neurotoxic neonicotinoids and pyrethroids.

2022 Clean 15 Key Findings Summary

• Nearly 70 percent of Clean Fifteen's fruit and vegetable samples had no detectable pesticide residues.
• Avocados and sweetcorn were the cleanest produce - less than 2 percent of the samples showed detectable pesticides.
• Nearly 5 percent of Clean Fifteen's fruit and vegetable samples had residues of two or more pesticides.
• The first six Clean Fifteen items tested positive for only three or fewer pesticides per sample.

If you readthe complete EWG report of all foodsYou'll find that some common foods like bananas and carrots fall somewhere in the middle.

I usually buy organic for this type of food. If something seems unusually expensive, I might just substitute something that's in season and has a lower price; For example, fresh organic blueberries will be very expensive in November, while fresh organic apples will have a better price because they are a fall food.

Always do your best when it comes to the quality of your food; I firmly believe that fresh produce is always better than no produce!

Keep in mind that washing produce won't necessarily remove all pesticides and chemicals as it grows throughout the plant, but it can reduce your risk and exposure, so make sure to always wash everything thoroughly. High cost is also part of the reason I love frozen fruit and veg — they end up being cheaper and last for months in the freezer. I almost always have organic frozen blueberries from Costco in my freezer for smoothies and other treats.

I suggest keeping these lists on your phone or printing them out to take to the store. I saved the above images in the favorites folder on my iPhone for easy reference in the store.