What’s on your food?

A new pesticide-information tool is now available

By Culinate staff

June 23, 2009

Do you know what pesticides are on that strawberry you’re eating?

A new Web-based tool for determining pesticide residues on various foods is available at What's On My Food? The site, sponsored by the Pesticide Action Network, breaks down the pesticides on given food items by type: “Known or Probable Carcinogens,” “Suspected Hormone Disruptors,” “Neurotoxins,” and “Developmental or Reproductive Toxicants.”

Strawberries, for example, show as many as 37 detected pesticides. The chart breaks out organic and conventional (when available), and provides information about the year when the food was tested.

It’s time-consuming to try to sleuth out what’s going on your food — and how unhealthful it is for you and the environment — but the idea of transparency and food is immensely appealing. Kudos to PAN for this tool.

(And a shout-out to the Environmental Working Group for its "Dirty Dozen" list of the most pesticide-laden produce items, and to Cindy Burke, for her book To Buy or Not to Buy Organic, which also examines which foods contain the most pesticides.)