If you’ve seen the “Dirty Dozen” list, there’s a good chance it was published by the Environmental Working Group (EWG), a US-based non-profit that analyses pesticide residue data from American produce. While the EWG does valuable work, its findings are based on crops grown and sold in the United States, tested under US conditions using American agricultural data. The pesticides permitted, the growing practices used, and the food supply chain are all different here in the UK. That means the EWG list, while informative, is not the most reliable guide for UK shoppers.
The UK has it’s own version of the EWG Dirty Dozen, and it’s arguably more rigorous and relevant, in one important respect.
Every year, Pesticide Action Network UK (PAN-UK) analyses the results of the UK Government’s own residue testing programme and publishes the UK Dirty Dozen. PAN-UK focuses specifically on produce containing residues of two or more pesticides, what scientists call “pesticide cocktails”. This distinction matters enormously (more on that to follow).
Pesticides kill living organisms. The term is an umbrella for thousands of different active chemicals, including herbicides, insecticides, and fungicides. A single crop can be treated with different pesticides many times during its growing season – wheat, for example, can be sprayed with as many as 20 different chemic al applications before harvest.
When pesticides are applied to food crops, they can leave detectable traces – known as residues – in or on the food we eat. The extent of contamination depends on which pesticides have been used, how recently they were applied, and how persistent they are (i.e. how quickly they break down).
Research has identified a range of health concerns associated with pesticide exposure, particularly for vulnerable groups. PAN-UK highlights that young children and pregnant people are especially susceptible, as exposure to certain pesticides at critical stages of development can interfere with organ function. Endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) are known to affect hormone systems, and have been associated with learning disabilities, attention deficit disorder, and cognitive and brain development problems.
Specific pesticides found in UK food have been linked to:
Cancer risk: Glyphosate (the world’s most widely used herbicide, found in a significant proportion of UK bread) has been repeatedly linked to various cancers. Thiacloprid, a neonicotinoid insecticide still found as a residue in UK produce, is classified as a human carcinogen. Imazalil, a fungicide widely used on citrus fruit, is also classified as a carcinogen, and a reproductive and developmental toxin.
Reproductive and developmental harm: Several pesticides commonly detected in UK food, including imazalil, chlorpyrifos and difenconazole, are classified as reproductive or developmental toxins. These can have adverse effects on sexual function and fertility, reduce sperm functionality, and may cause miscarriages.
Neurological harm: Chlorpyrifos, still found as a residue on some UK produce despite being banned in the EU, has been linked in multiple studies with lower birth weight and neurological changes in children, including slower motor development and attention problems.
Hormonal disruption: The herbicide 2,4-D, found on oranges, is an endocrine disrupting chemical with links to cancer. Fungicides from the ‘azole’ class are also suspected EDCs.
One of the most important but under-discussed aspects of pesticide exposure is what happens when chemicals combine. The UK’s regulatory system sets safety limits for one pesticide at a time. It does not account for what happens when you consume residues of five, ten or twenty different chemicals simultaneously, across a single meal, or a full day of eating.
This is what PAN-UK calls the cocktail effect. There is growing evidence that pesticides can become significantly more harmful when combined, even when each individual chemical falls below its permitted safety limit. By focusing on produce containing multiple residues, PAN-UK’s Dirty Dozen specifically targets this concern.
Pesticide harms don’t begin and end on the supermarket shelf. The environmental consequences are wide-ranging and serious.
Neonicotinoid insecticides, a class of pesticides now banned in the UK and EU due to their devastating impact on pollinators, are nonetheless still detected on UK food imported from countries where they remain legal. Residues continue to appear in UK produce. As PAN-UK has noted, by continuing to import food grown with banned pesticides, the UK is effectively exporting its environmental responsibilities to other parts of the world, while bees and pollinators in those countries continue to suffer.
PAN-UK publishes two versions of the Dirty Dozen to address the inconsistency of UK government testing, which tests different produce each year, making year-on-year comparisons difficult.
This is the most recently tested produce, ranked by the percentage of samples found to contain two or more pesticide residues:
Because the government tests different items each year, some of the most persistently problematic produce doesn’t always appear in the annual snapshot. PAN-UK’s five-year composite list provides a clearer picture of which foods are consistently high in pesticide cocktails.
The five-year list is arguably the most useful for everyday shopping decisions, as it captures persistent trends rather than a single year’s snapshot.
PAN-UK’s work goes beyond fresh produce, and two findings deserve particular attention.
Bread: In 2024, the UK government tested 216 bread samples. Twelve different pesticide active substances were detected. Chlormequat, a plant growth regulator with concerns around birth defects, was found in 97% of bread samples. Glyphosate was present in 28% of bread tested. In 2021, 50% of bread contained multiple pesticide residues, double the proportion found a decade earlier. While this fell slightly to 47% in 2024, it remains deeply concerning given how frequently most people eat bread.
Wine: The last time wine was tested (2022), 50% of samples contained multiple pesticide residues, up from 14% in 2016. Organic wine is well worth considering for regular drinkers.
Unfortunately, not entirely. Washing produce can reduce surface residues and remove some traces of pesticide-contaminated soil. However, many of the pesticides used in modern agriculture are systemic, meaning they are absorbed by the plant. These residues are contained within the body of the produce and cannot be washed away.
Citrus fruit consistently shows some of the highest residue levels in government testing, largely because its peel traps more chemical residue. However, if you use citrus zest or juice citrus with the peel, those residues can be directly consumed. Handling heavily treated fruit also raises concerns about dermal absorption, particularly for children.
You may have noticed that the EWG publishes a companion “Clean Fifteen” list, the 15 US-grown items least likely to carry pesticide residues. For 2025, the EWG’s Clean Fifteen includes: avocados, sweet corn, pineapple, onions, papaya, asparagus, honeydew melon, kiwi, watermelon, mushrooms, cabbage, mangoes, sweet peas (frozen), cauliflower, and bananas.
It is important to note that PAN-UK does not publish a UK equivalent of the Clean Fifteen. This is a deliberate and considered decision. Because UK government testing is so limited (only around 3,000kg of food is tested annually, with a different selection of produce chosen each year), PAN-UK is not willing to give the impression that any particular fruit or vegetable is reliably free from pesticide cocktails.
If you are using the EWG’s Clean Fifteen as a rough guide to lower-risk conventional produce, it is worth bearing in mind that it reflects US agriculture, not UK growing conditions and supply chains.
Given everything above, here are practical steps you can take to minimise pesticide exposure for yourself and your family.
It is worth ending with an important note of reassurance: the evidence consistently shows that eating more fruit and vegetables, even if conventionally grown, is beneficial to health. The message from PAN-UK, and from nutritional therapists and health professionals broadly, is not to eat less produce, but to make more informed choices about which items to prioritise buying organic, and to advocate for stronger government action on pesticide reduction.
The UK Government’s pesticide safety limits remain inadequate in one critical respect: they assess chemicals individually, not as the cocktails we actually consume every day. Until that changes, tools like the PAN-UK Dirty Dozen are one of the most practical resources available to help consumers navigate their safer food choices with greater confidence.
Pesticide Action Network UK (PAN-UK). (2025). Dirty Dozen 2025 [based on 2024 UK Government residue testing data]. Retrieved from https://www.pan-uk.org/dirty-dozen/
Pesticide Action Network UK (PAN-UK). (2025). Dirty Dozen 2025 PDF — including five-year composite list 2020–2024. Retrieved from https://www.pan-uk.org/site/wp-content/uploads/Dirty-Dozen-2025.pdf
Pesticide Action Network UK (PAN-UK). (n.d.). The cocktail effect. Retrieved from https://www.pan-uk.org/the-cocktail-effect/
Pesticide Action Network UK (PAN-UK). (n.d.). Health effects of pesticides. Retrieved from https://www.pan-uk.org/health-effects-of-pesticides/
Pesticide Action Network UK (PAN-UK). (2024). Previous UK government weakened pesticide safety limits in blow to consumer protection. Retrieved from https://www.pan-uk.org/food-safety-limits/
Environmental Working Group (EWG). (2025). Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce: Clean Fifteen. Retrieved from https://www.ewg.org/foodnews/clean-fifteen.php
Environmental Working Group (EWG). (2025). Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce: Summary. Retrieved from https://www.ewg.org/foodnews/summary.php
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