THE dirty dozen and clean 15 - which foods to prioritise when buying organic

Written By Rachel Guymer

The Dirty Dozen and Clean 15 lists in 2024 provide easy guidelines around which fruits and vegetables to buy organic - which can save money on.

My journey started 17 years a go on the journey of looking into the affects of additives and preservatives in food ( blog post to come ). This journey lead me to eliminating all chemicals in our home and on our food, which brought Permaculture into my life and then drove me to start my own business in helping others to start on their journey on growing food and reducing waste in there households.

There are things we can not grow or don’t have available at the time we need them, and with the price of food at the moment buying Organic everything is not always affordable or even available. The first thing I would suggest is to try and find a local farmer or grower and get to know them and ask how they grow the food they sell not all farms will be certified organic but I know some amazing farmers and growers that are super passionate about what they grow, how they treat the soil and what they don’t spray on the products they grow and make.

Why buying “some” organic food matters.

the argument for buying organic is strong. Simply put, people who eat organic produce eat fewer pesticides.

THE 2024 DIRTY DOZEN LIST :

This years Dirty Dozen items include:

  • Strawberries

  • Spinach

  • Collard greens, kale, and mustard greens

  • Grapes

  • Peaches

  • Nectarines

  • Apples

  • Capsicums, Chilli

  • Cherry

  • Blueberries

  • Green Beans


Store Bought Produce 





THE 2024 CLEAN FIFTEEN LIST

In contrast, the Clean Fifteen list highlights the 15 produce items with the lowest amounts of pesticide residue. For 2024:

  • Avocados

  • Sweet corn

  • Pineaple

  • Onions

  • Pawpaw

  • Frozen sweet peas

  • Asparagus

  • Honey Dew Melon

  • Kiwi

  • Cabbage

  • Watermelon

  • Mushroom

  • Mangoes

  • Sweet potatoes

  • Carrots

Organic Locally Grown Produce

An easy way to think about it. Produce which needs heavy amounts of pesticide and are most beneficial to buy organic fit into two groups.

  • Fruit and Vegetables with edible skin (grapes, berries, peaches, apples, celery, capsicum etc)

  • Leafy greens including herbs (spinach, kale, parsley etc)

The produce which have the least pesticides and are least important to buy organic:

  • Need to be peeled (mango, avocado, onion, pawpaw, rockmelon, honeydew, grapefruit).

I hope this helps you make choices that help support you on your journey in reducing you the amount of pesticides in your families diets.



Rachel Guymer
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