The Dirty Dozen: Which Foods To Be Aware Of In 2025

The Dirty Dozen: Which Foods To Be Aware Of In 2025

dirty dozen 2025
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The Dirty Dozen: Which Foods To Be Aware Of In 2025

Are you worried about pesticide residue in your food? Do you want to make more informed choices during your weekly grocery shop? The Pesticide Action Network (PAN) has conducted extensive research and compiled an updated list of the fruits and vegetables most likely to contain a mix of multiple pesticides.

Whenever possible, choosing organic or pesticide-free options is ideal, though we understand this may not always be feasible. The list below is designed to help you identify produce with higher levels of pesticide residue, making it easier to prioritise organic options and make healthier choices more affordable.

“The UK government tests roughly 3,000kg of food for pesticide residues each year. Once the results are published, PAN UK analyses this data and makes it accessible to the general public by producing the annual ‘Dirty Dozen’. The Dirty Dozen lists the fruit and vegetables most likely to contain residues of two or more pesticides (known as ‘pesticide cocktails’) to help inform people’s shopping decisions.”

What are pesticides?

Pesticides are essentially poisons designed to eliminate living organisms, commonly known as weed killers, insecticides, and fungicides. In large-scale agriculture, where growers produce crops to supply supermarkets, spraying these chemicals is a faster and more cost-effective way to protect crops and ensure a successful growing season. Some fruits and vegetables are more prone to pest attacks than others, leading to heavier pesticide use on certain types of produce to prevent crop destruction.

However, this widespread use of pesticides significantly increases the risk of these chemicals contaminating the food we eat – and ultimately, our bodies. Despite choosing foods we believe to be ‘healthy’ and ‘nutritious,’ we may unknowingly be consuming harmful toxins and poisons. As PAN UK explains… “Certain groups of people are more susceptible to the effects of pesticides, especially young children and expectant parents. Exposure to certain pesticides at critical stages in development can interfere with organs and their functions, particularly endocrine disrupting chemicals which affect hormone systems and have been associated with learning disabilities, attention deficit disorder and brain development problems.”

The cocktail effect

The difference in PAN UK’s research into the Dirty Dozen 2025 compared to others, is that they focus on produce with multiple pesticide residues. “This is because the government sets safety limits for just one pesticide at a time, ignoring the growing body of evidence that chemicals can become more harmful when combined (a phenomenon known as the ‘cocktail effect’). This not only ignores the potential risks to human health associated with pesticide mixtures found on one item (an apple, for example) but also those found in one dish (such as a fruit salad) let alone an entire day’s worth of food.”


It’s worth noting that PAN UK does not produce a Clean 15 list of goods. They believe the government’s testing program is too limited to provide a full picture of pesticide contamination. PAN UK avoids suggesting that certain fruits and vegetables are entirely free from pesticide residue or pose no risk to human health or the environment. Contamination is still possible, particularly when hazardous pesticides are used but do not leave detectable residues on the final produce.

Here is PAN-UK’s Dirty Dozen 2025 list, based on the most recent data available from 2023.

We hope this information has been helpful to inform your weekly shopping habits. For more nutritional guidance and support, please take a look at our Events page to view and book onto any of our wellbeing workshops to support you on your journey. We often welcome Naturopath, Emmie, at Hummingbird Naturopath to host regular nutrition sessions at the Together Against Cancer Wellness Centre. 

PAN UK campaigns for a major reduction in pesticide-related harms to both human health and the environment. This includes making sure that UK farmers have the support they need to reduce their pesticide use and working with supermarkets to tackle pesticide harms linked to their global supply chains. Please click here to view the original data analysis of PAN-UK’s Dirty Dozen 2024.

www.pan-uk.org