I was listening to an interview by a food scientist, and she said that the EWG (Environmental Working Group) does not take into account the levels/dose of pesticides in produce; they only count the number of different pesticides detected. If they aren’t even comparing the dose to the tolerance levels, then I don’t see the point of it. It seems like the EWG is consciously choosing to focus on a not so relevant metric like the number of different pesticides detected because if they talked about the dose, people would find out really quickly that they are not even close to being at harmful levels. You’d have to eat 100s of servings daily to even come close to the tolerance levels set by the EPA.
Given that I don’t recommend organic food, sticking to the “Clean 15”, or avoiding the “Dirty Dozen”, because they wouldn’t improve health or fitness, I was unaware of the controversy over these “recommendations.”