The Dirty Dozen 2026: Which Produce to Buy Organic

By Tremayne Saliim · Updated October 12, 2026

Strawberries, grapes, blueberries, apples. Late at night, your feed serves them up on a “most contaminated produce” chart with a warning to buy organic, and two posts later someone swears organic is a scam. Then you’re in the produce aisle on Saturday, holding a clamshell of berries and wondering which post was right.

Quick answer: The Dirty Dozen 2026 is the Environmental Working Group’s yearly list of the 12 fruits and vegetables that still carry the most pesticide residue after washing or peeling: spinach; kale, collard and mustard greens; strawberries; grapes; nectarines; peaches; cherries; apples; blackberries; pears; potatoes; and blueberries.¹ Every one of them is still worth eating. Think of the list as a map of where your organic dollars lower your family’s exposure the most, so the berries can stay in the cart.

First, what “pesticide residue” means

Farmers spray crops to protect them from bugs, weeds and mold. The tiny traces of those sprays that are still on the food when you buy it are called pesticide residue.

Before the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) tests a sample, it peels or scrubs it and washes it, the way you would at home.¹² So the list shows what’s left on the food after it’s been washed or peeled.

Why it matters to you: the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the main professional group for children’s doctors in the U.S., says “children’s exposures to pesticides should be limited as much as possible.”³ You can’t control everything on a farm, but you can choose where your organic dollars go. That’s what this list helps with.

The Dirty Dozen 2026 list

The Environmental Working Group (EWG) ranked the 12 foods using USDA test results from 54,344 samples of 47 fruits and vegetables.¹ Here’s the list in EWG’s order, compared with 2025.⁴

Rank	Food	What to know
1	Spinach	More pesticide residue by weight than any other produce tested⁵
2	Kale, collard and mustard greens	Up from #3 in 2025
3	Strawberries	Down from #2. EWG says the average American eats about eight pounds of fresh strawberries a year, so this one adds up⁵
4	Grapes	Same spot as 2025
5	Nectarines	Up from #7, the biggest jump this year
6	Peaches	Down from #5. Nearly 90% of peaches and plums carried a mold-fighting spray called fludioxonil (more on that below)¹
7	Cherries	Down from #6
8	Apples	Up from #9
9	Blackberries	Up from #10. 91% of samples had pesticide residue, with more than four different sprays per sample on average¹
10	Pears	Down from #8
11	Potatoes	Up from #12. 90% had chlorpropham (klor-PRO-pam), a chemical put on potatoes after harvest to keep them from sprouting. The European Union stopped approving it in 2019¹
12	Blueberries	Down from #11

EWG also named green beans and bell and hot peppers as close runners-up.¹ Across the 12 foods, 96% of samples had some residue, and every food except potatoes averaged four or more different pesticides per sample.¹

What’s new this year: “forever chemical” sprays

You’ve probably heard of PFAS (PEE-fass), often called “forever chemicals.” They’re a large family of man-made chemicals that break down very slowly, and they’re used in things like nonstick pans and stain-resistant fabric. For the first time, EWG looked at which farm sprays meet the international definition of PFAS.⁶ By its count, those sprays showed up on 63% of Dirty Dozen samples.¹

The one you’ll hear about most is fludioxonil (floo-dye-OX-oh-nil). It’s a fungicide, a spray that keeps fruit from molding or rotting, and EWG notes sprays like it are used while crops grow or after harvest.¹ It was the most common spray in the whole guide, found on 14% of all produce samples and on nearly 90% of peaches and plums.¹

Why it matters, and what we still don’t know: PFAS chemicals stick around in the environment, and EWG says “scientists are still figuring out how toxic these chemicals may be.”¹ So this is a “keep an eye on it” finding, not a reason to panic. In your week, it comes down to one choice. If peaches are a regular lunchbox fruit at your house, they’re a good place to spend on organic when you can.⁷

How to use the Dirty Dozen without buying everything organic

If you’ve been buying everything organic, that instinct makes sense. You want the best for your kids. If you’ve been skipping berries because a video scared you, that makes sense too. EWG’s own advice sits in between: buy organic Dirty Dozen produce when you can, choose regular (conventional) produce for the Clean 15, consider frozen as an affordable option, and wash everything.⁷ Here’s that advice as a plan for this week’s trip.

Circle your top three. Look at the list and pick the three foods your family eats most. If strawberries are in the lunchbox every day, they go first.
Buy those three organic, fresh or frozen. EWG notes frozen produce is often more affordable.¹ A 2015 UC Davis study of eight fruits and vegetables, including strawberries and blueberries, found frozen kept vitamin levels comparable to fresh.⁸
Use the Clean 15 for the rest. EWG ranks those foods lowest for pesticide residue and suggests buying them regular.⁷ See our Clean 15 list.
Wash everything, organic too. More on what washing does below.
Keep the produce coming. EWG says the guide is meant to encourage eating fruits and vegetables, organic or not.⁷

Picture Saturday’s trip with the list on your phone. Organic strawberries, spinach and apples go in the cart first, because those are the three your family goes through fastest. Pineapple, avocados and bananas from the Clean 15 go in at the regular price, and what you save there helps cover the organic berries. You check out without second-guessing a single choice, and on Monday the strawberries are still in the lunchbox.

Once the list makes the decisions, the aisle has room for the fun part. Hand your kid a job: our TJ’s Grocery Challenge and Taste Test Tracker turns the trip into a mission where they find a food they’ve never touched, check where it came from, and score points before checkout.

A quick way to decide in the aisle

If this is true	Then try this
It’s on the Dirty Dozen and your kid eats it most days	Organic, fresh or frozen, first
It’s on the Dirty Dozen and you buy it once in a while	EWG suggests organic when possible. If the budget says no, regular produce washed well still beats skipping it
It’s on the Clean 15	Regular (conventional)
Organic isn’t in the budget this week	Buy the produce anyway and wash it

Does buying organic really lower pesticide exposure?

Yes, for the sprays researchers have measured. In a 2006 Emory University study of 23 elementary school children, the kids ate mostly organic food for five days. During those days, the typical levels of two common bug sprays in the kids’ urine dropped too low for the tests to detect.⁹ A 2019 UC Berkeley study of four U.S. families (16 people) found that eating organic lowered the levels of 13 pesticide markers in their urine, with the biggest drops ranging from about 60% to 95%.¹⁰

Organic food isn’t more nutritious, though. A 2012 Stanford review of 240 studies found no strong evidence that organic food is significantly more nutritious,¹¹ and the AAP says current evidence doesn’t support any meaningful nutritional difference.¹² The difference the research does find is lower pesticide exposure. So a regular apple still gives your kid the same apple nutrition.

Does washing remove pesticides?

Washing helps, and it can’t remove everything. EWG notes that washed produce has lower pesticide levels than unwashed produce, while some residue stays behind.¹

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) keeps it simple: wash produce under running water before eating, and dry it with a clean towel.¹³ Skip soap and dish detergent, which can soak into produce and make you sick. The FDA doesn’t recommend store-bought produce washes either.¹³

You may have seen baking soda soaks online. There’s real research behind them, with a limit. A 2017 University of Massachusetts lab study on apples found a baking soda soak (about 1 teaspoon per 2 cups of water) removed surface residue of two pesticides better than plain water, after 12 to 15 minutes.¹⁴ Some of the spray had already soaked a little way into the peel, and the soak couldn’t reach that part. Think of washing as cleaning the outside of the fruit.

Strawberries get their own step-by-step guide: how to wash strawberries to remove pesticides.

What critics say about the Dirty Dozen

You may also see posts saying the Dirty Dozen is fearmongering. Here’s what that side argues, so you can weigh it yourself.

Their main point is that finding a spray isn’t the same as finding a danger. Before a pesticide can be used on a food, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sets a legal limit for how much of it can stay on that food, called a tolerance.¹⁵ In January 2026 the USDA reported that more than 99% of the samples in its 2024 testing had residue below the EPA’s benchmark levels.¹⁶ Food Safety Magazine also points to a 2024 analysis that found people’s estimated daily exposure stayed below health-based safety limits.⁶

Both things can be true at once. Most residue sits under the legal limits, and the AAP still recommends keeping children’s exposure as low as you reasonably can.³ That’s why we use the Dirty Dozen as a way to decide where organic matters most, while the fruit bowl stays full.

Dirty Dozen questions

Does the Dirty Dozen change every year?

The foods often stay the same while the order moves. The 2026 list has the same 12 foods as 2025, with kale, collard and mustard greens moving up to #2 and nectarines jumping from #7 to #5.⁴¹

Is organic produce more nutritious?

Research hasn’t found a meaningful difference. The AAP and a 2012 Stanford review both found no meaningful nutritional difference, and both note that organic diets lower pesticide exposure.¹²¹¹

Should I buy regular strawberries if organic costs too much?

Yes. EWG’s own guidance is to keep eating plenty of fruits and vegetables, organic or not.⁷ Wash them well and enjoy them.

The short version

The Dirty Dozen works best as a shopping shortcut. Pick the three foods your family goes through fastest, buy those organic when you can, fresh or frozen, and let the Clean 15 cover the rest at the regular price. Wash everything, organic included.

A couple of trips in, the list turns into a habit. The late-night charts lose their grip, you know which strawberries go in the cart before you reach them, and they’re still in the lunchbox on Monday.

The produce that does your family the most good is the produce your kids actually eat.

This post summarizes published research and EWG’s guide. For advice about your own child, talk to your pediatrician or a registered dietitian.

The NutraPlanet Gazette gives one fruit or vegetable the star treatment: a comic, music, games and activities your kid can flip through with you. Read a free issue. When your kid wants more, a Gazette library membership opens all 11 finished issues, including strawberries, broccoli and carrots.