27/03/2026
A lot of us are looking at the Dirty Dozen list today.
And I get the feeling our collective response is one of shock, but not shocked, followed by a mental note to get more vigilant with our produce washing.
Here's the thing nobody's mentioning.
Those numbers? The 96% of samples that tested positive for pesticides? The 203 different pesticides detected?
That's after the rinse.
Before every single sample was tested, the USDA washed it under cold running water, peeled it where relevant, then tested it.
The Dirty Dozen isn't measuring dirty produce. It's measuring produce that was already "cleaned" the way most people do it. It's actually a very fair way to test, because if that's how most people wash their produce, the numbers they report are the best baseline we can set our expectations to. But clearly there's a lot of scope to get better results for ourselves in our own homes.
This is why we built Crop DeTox. Water alone is not enough any more.
🌿 Link in bio.
Lauren x
