Which vegetables have high pesticide residues? This ranking tells you

Ranking of vegetables with the highest pesticide residues

The Agricultural Product Quality Supervision and Inspection Center once conducted a study on pesticide residues in vegetables and reached this conclusion: in terms of pesticide residues, there is a pattern, namely leafy greens > brassicas > solanaceous and melon vegetables > gourds and fruits.

Specifically, among the vegetables people commonly eat, according to the degree of pesticide residue risk, a ranking can be roughly worked out from high to low.

Leaf and stem vegetables

1. Chinese chives and onions

The chive maggot in Chinese chives usually parasitizes its roots, and spraying insecticide on the surface is ineffective, so growers often choose highly toxic insecticides and use the root-drenching method to kill them, which causes the pesticide to spread throughout the whole plant. Searching news reports from recent years, reports of people getting "sick" from eating Chinese chives far exceed those for other vegetables.

Onion roots are also prone to maggots, and growers often use the root-drenching method to kill them, so it is also easy for pesticide residues to exceed the standard, which is contrary to people's general impression.

2. Cabbage and cowpeas

Cabbage is prone to pests, among which there is a pest commonly known as the "heart-boring worm", which parasitizes in the innermost core of the cabbage, and spraying pesticide on the surface cannot kill it. In order to eliminate this pest, growers have to use highly toxic pesticides repeatedly to drench the core. Cowpeas are also quite prone to pests, and a relatively large amount of pesticide is used during cultivation.

3. Rapeseed greens

The cabbage caterpillar in rapeseed greens has strong pesticide resistance, and ordinary insecticides can hardly kill it. In order to kill the pests as quickly as possible, growers often choose highly toxic pesticides. Rapeseed greens grow quickly, and every stage from sprouting onward can be marketed, so there is not enough time for decomposition, and pesticide residues are often relatively serious.

Gourd, fruit and bean vegetables

1. Cucumbers and tomatoes

Because these two vegetables grow in a high-humidity environment, they are prone to disease, and the amount of pesticide used is generally relatively large, especially fungicides. From 2008 to 2009, Greenpeace conducted sampling tests for pesticide residues on 17 kinds of vegetables and fruits from several large supermarkets in 3 cities, Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, and the result was that cucumbers ranked first, containing 4 to 13 different pesticide residues respectively.

2. Bitter melon, cauliflower, green peppers, bell peppers

Bitter melon and cauliflower tend to accumulate pesticide residues because of their bumpy surfaces. Green peppers and bell peppers tend to accumulate pesticide residues because of their sunken stem ends.

3. Bean sprouts

Whether mung bean sprouts or soybean sprouts, both have become high-risk varieties.

Root and tuber vegetables

Such as radishes, carrots, potatoes, lotus root, taro, winter bamboo shoots, garlic bulbs, kohlrabi, etc., because they grow underground, pests and diseases are relatively mild, and basically no pesticide needs to be applied, so they are very safe. Some vegetables with a special aroma, such as bitter lettuce, cilantro, wormwood stems, garland chrysanthemum, youmai greens, spinach, fennel, etc., have few pests and diseases and little pesticide spraying, so pesticide residues are relatively light, and they can be eaten with confidence.

Pesticide residues are related to season

Vegetables grown in the open from late autumn, winter and early spring are relatively safe because low temperatures mean fewer pests and diseases, so not much pesticide needs to be sprayed; Chinese cabbage and lettuce belong to this category.

Vegetables grown in summer, because of high temperatures, have serious pests and diseases and a large amount of pesticide use, especially leafy vegetables, and pesticide residues easily exceed the standard. Generally speaking, from May to August each year is when vegetable pesticide residues are the most serious and also the time when problems are most likely to occur, so special care is needed.

The same is true for greenhouse vegetables in winter. Because off-season vegetables are harder to grow, a lot of pesticide is often needed, and because the production environment is closed, the pesticide does not decompose easily and residues easily exceed the standard, so experts suggest that off-season vegetables are best not eaten in large amounts.

Measures to reduce pesticide residues

Changing pesticide residues at the source is necessary and urgent!

Greenpeace International believes that the fundamental solution to the pesticide residue problem lies in source control. Only by not using chemical pesticides that leave pesticide residues during the crop cultivation process can the harm to the human body from pesticide residues in vegetables and fruits be completely eliminated.

To break away from dependence on pesticides, it is necessary to use as little as possible or not use toxic chemical pesticides that leave residues, and to use more safe, residue-free plant-source pesticides, animal-source pesticides, or adopt physical control, biological control, etc.