Eating These Popular Fruits Could Spike Pesticide Levels in Your Body

EWG also notes that fruits and vegetables are still essential for a healthy diet.

A new peer-reviewed study from Environmental Working Group scientists reports that eating certain fruits and vegetables can raise the amount of harmful pesticides found in the human body.

Pesticides have been associated with cancer, reproductive problems, hormone disruption, and neurotoxicity in children. These chemicals are frequently detected on produce, raising concerns about consumer exposure. The new research may help guide future studies examining how pesticide intake from fruits and vegetables influences human health.

“The findings reinforce that what we eat directly affects the level of pesticides in our bodies,” said Alexis Temkin, Ph.D., vice president for science at EWG and lead author of the study. “Eating produce is essential to a healthy diet, but it can also increase exposure to pesticides.”

People who ate larger amounts of fruits and vegetables known to carry higher pesticide residues, such as strawberries, spinach, and bell peppers, had much higher pesticide levels in their urine than those who primarily consumed produce with lower residue levels. These results show how diet can drive pesticide exposure and lay the groundwork for future research into the long-term health effects of that exposure.

“This study builds on previous work showing that certain fruits and vegetables are a major route of pesticide exposure for millions of Americans,” said Temkin. “Young children and pregnant people are particularly susceptible to the harms from exposure.”

Methods for estimating pesticide exposure

The study was published in the International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health.

EWG scientists began by gathering Department of Agriculture data on pesticide residues detected in produce from 2013 to 2018. They paired these data with dietary questionnaire responses and urine biomonitoring results from 1,837 people who participated in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, or NHANES, from 2015 to 2016. These years represent the most recent dataset with extensive pesticide tracking. NHANES biomonitoring data are available only through 2018.

Using this information, EWG developed a “dietary pesticide exposure score” to estimate individual exposure based on the types of fruits and vegetables people ate and the pesticide levels measured on those foods. Pesticide amounts were assessed by how often each chemical was detected and at what quantity. EWG also included the concentration and toxicity of each pesticide in its assessment.

Scientists then compared the exposure scores to 15 pesticide biomarkers, or indicators, in participant’s urine for three major classes: organophosphates, pyrethroids, and neonicotinoids.

The results revealed a clear link between the specific produce people consumed and the levels of these pesticides that were detected in their urine, varying based on what they ate and the pesticides on those fruits and vegetables.

Key findings

Beyond highlighting the link between eating certain produce and increased levels of pesticides in people’s bodies, EWG’s study includes a number of important findings.

• Diet matters. Eating produce with high pesticide residues is more strongly associated with the chemicals being found in urine compared to low-residue items.
• Certain pesticide classes need more attention: NHANES currently monitors only a subset of pesticides found in food and identified in the study. Many more pesticides need attention because people are exposed to a wide range of agricultural chemicals.
• People are exposed to mixtures of pesticides: The study confirms people are exposed to several pesticides at a time. Fruits and vegetables had measurable residues of 178 unique pesticides, but only 42 of those chemicals matched biomarkers in the urine data.
• Potatoes skew the results. The relationship between produce consumption and pesticide levels in the body was only evident when potatoes were excluded from the analysis. Potato consumption obscured the study’s findings, possibly because people eat potatoes in a variety of ways, which makes it more difficult to accurately estimate pesticide exposure from them. More research is needed into how potatoes influence pesticide exposure in people.
• Regulatory concerns and public health gaps

The foods with the highest pesticide levels include spinach, strawberries, kale and other leafy greens, grapes, peaches, cherries, nectarines, pears, apples, blackberries, blueberries, and potatoes. In contrast, the foods with the lowest pesticide residues are pineapples, sweet corn, avocados, papaya, onions, frozen sweet peas, asparagus, cabbage, watermelon, cauliflower, bananas, mangoes, carrots, mushroom,s and kiwi.

While most pesticide research has focused on occupational and residential exposures, EWG’s study shows that everyday food choices can also drive significant pesticide exposure in the general population.

Given the widespread exposure documented in this paper and other studies, serious questions remain about whether current pesticide safety regulations set by the Environmental Protection Agency sufficiently protect public health.

Despite years of research linking low-level pesticide exposure to health risks, the EPA still sets limits for individual pesticides, failing to account for cumulative exposure from mixtures of residues regularly detected on produce samples tested by the USDA.

The study’s authors suggest that their methodology for estimating pesticide exposure from fruits and vegetables could give regulators and other researchers a powerful tool to assess real-world exposures and better safeguard vulnerable populations, particularly children and people who are pregnant.

“This study was only possible thanks to robust federal data, highlighting why strong public health agencies must remain a top priority for policymakers,” said Varun Subramaniam, EWG science analyst.

“The pesticide residue tests and CDC biomonitoring data represent the kind of essential research that only the government can provide – at a scale that no private sector or academic effort could match,” he said.

What consumers can do

EWG urges people to eat plenty of fruits and vegetables, whether grown conventionally or organic.

Switching from conventional produce to organic, which cannot be grown using certain pesticides, has been shown to dramatically reduce pesticide biomarkers in the body within days.

When possible, EWG recommends prioritizing organic purchases for the most contaminated items listed in its Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce. The guide features the “Dirty Dozen” list of the produce with the highest pesticide residues detected and the “Clean Fifteen” list of items with the lowest residues.

Reference: “A cumulative dietary pesticide exposure score based on produce consumption is associated with urinary pesticide biomarkers in a U.S. biomonitoring cohort” by Alexis M. Temkin, Varun Subramaniam, Alexa Friedman, Elvira Fleury, Dayna de Montagnac, Chris Campbell, David Q. Andrews and Olga V. Naidenko, 24 September 2025, International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health.
DOI: 10.1016/j.ijheh.2025.114654

The Environmental Working Group (EWG) is a nonprofit, non-partisan organization that empowers people to live healthier lives in a healthier environment. Through research, advocacy and unique education tools, EWG drives consumer choice and civic action.

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