We’ve all heard about the "eat five fruits and veggies" daily recommendation but how about our intake of pesticides?

The Environmental Working Group, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit, released its 2012 Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce last week.

Forty-five fruits and vegetables are ranked in the guide.

Since buying organic usually costs more, it’s also good to know what ranks lowest in pesticide residues should your budget require you to pick and choose.

The EWG adopted the term "Dirty Dozen" eight years ago with its first list referring to the most pesticide residue-laden fruits and vegetables consumed in the U.S.

So what made the dirty dozen list this year?

Apples, celery, sweet bell peppers, peaches, strawberries, imported nectarines, grapes, spinach, lettuce, cucumbers, domestic blueberries and potatoes.

The EWG based its guide on lab tests performed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Pesticide Testing Program. More than 60,700 samples were tested from 2000 to 2010.

The fruits and vegetables were washed and, when applicable, peeled (bananas, for instance), so that they could be tested as typically eaten.

Apples top the Dirty Dozen list for the second year in a row. When tested, 98 percent were found to have pesticide residues. Imported nectarines didn’t fare too well, either, with every sample testing positive for pesticides.

Fifteen different pesticides were detected on a single sample of grapes, while single samples of blueberries and strawberries both were detected to host 13 different pesticides.

If you’re a meat-and-potatoes person, then you might want to know that potatoes are 12th on the list.

This year the group added a "plus" to its Dirty Dozen list, citing concerns about organophosphate insecticides on green beans and "leafy greens," which are defined as kale and collards.

These insecticides are toxic to the nervous system and have been largely removed from agriculture over the past decade but are not banned and still show up in some foods, EWG says.

Even more alarming, the USDA this year tested 190 samples each of green beans, pears and sweet potatoes prepared and marketed as baby food in 2010, with disturbing results.

Ninety-two percent of pear baby food samples tested positive for at least one pesticide residue as well as iprodione — categorized as a probable human carcinogen by the EPA. Green beans prepared as baby food also tested positive for five pesticides.

The good news is that sweet potatoes prepared as baby food had virtually no detectable pesticide residues.

The EWG says the bottom line is: "If you eat in America, unless you’re on an all-organic diet, you eat pesticides."

While the EWG stands behind its "dirty dozen" list — which has been challenged by produce trade groups — it does not recommend people stop eating fruits and vegetables.

The following made the "Clean 15" list: onions, sweet corn, pineapples, avocado, cabbage, sweet peas, asparagus, mangoes, eggplant, kiwi, domestic cantaloupe, sweet potatoes, grapefruit, watermelon and mushrooms.

It’s good to know avocadoes and mangoes, two favorites for Hawaii, are on this list.

If your goal is to buy local and organic, we do have some of that here — including several choices of local salad mixes, collard greens and kale.

Do your homework. Ask your supermarket or farmers market vendor how their produce was grown. The more we support local and organic, the more farms there will be to support our demands for pesticide-free foods.

Another option is to grow your own organic foods.

To see the full lists, visit www.ewg.org/foodnews/list.

Nina Wu writes about environmental issues. Reach her at 529-4892 or nwu@staradvertiser.com.