Strawberries: One of the Most Popular Fruits in the US — And the Dirtiest
Strawberries are one of the top fruit picks for many Americans, as stats show that combined with other berries such as raspberries, blueberries and cranberries, they come in fifth, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. California is the largest strawberry-growing state in the U.S., producing 1.5 million tons in 2015. Bananas come in first, followed by citrus fruits, apples and watermelon.
Strawberries contain the highest concentrations of fisetin, but it would require eating 37 of them to get the optimal amount for actual benefits (or nine servings of other fisetin-containing fruits), so supplementation has been an ongoing endeavor for more than one company. Besides the above fruits, there are other fisetin-producing plants, including acacia trees, honey locust and the Japanese wax shrub.
But according to the Environmental Working Group (EWG), strawberries are again the No. 1 fruit on the Dirty Dozen List of the most pesticide-laden crops, which means that as American eat their 8 pounds of this fruit per year, they’re also ingesting dozens of varieties of pesticides, including chemicals known to cause cancer and reproductive damage, many of them banned in Europe. EWG notes:
“What’s worse, strawberry growers use jaw-dropping volumes of poisonous gases, some developed for chemical warfare but now banned by the Geneva Conventions, to sterilize their fields before planting, killing every pest, weed and other living thing in the soil … USDA (U.S. Department of Agriculture) tests found that strawberries were the fresh produce items most likely to be contaminated with pesticide residues, even after they are picked, rinsed in the field and washed before eating.”