Pesticide Risks

The Organic Center’s uses a method called the “Dietary Risk Index” (DRI) which analyzes specific chemical pesticides in our food and their dietary risk.  DRI values are the average residue level in a food divided by the maximum amount of the pesticide that can safely be in the food, based on the Environmental Protection Agency’s current assessment of each pesticide’s chronic toxicity.

Our analysis uses U.S. Department of Agriculture pesticide residue data and official Environmental Protection Agency measures of pesticide toxicity in calculating the DRI.

One form of the DRI is based on average residue levels in all samples testing positive for a given pesticide, and is called the DRI-Mean.  Another form is the Food Supply-DRI, which is simply the DRI-Mean multiplied by the percent of samples testing positive for a given pesticide. Food Supply DRI values for the foods are used in the ranking of food in Organic Essentials.

Organic Essentials shows which fruits and vegetables are associated with the greatest pesticide risk by looking at the frequency of pesticide residues on a given food, the average level of residues found, and the toxicity of different chemical pesticides. This helps you to make best choices for your health.

Nutrition Rankings

We rank foods according to their nutrient content using our Nutritional Quality Index (TOC-NQI).  The higher the TOC-NQI score, the greater the nutritional quality of the food.

TOC-NQI is a comprehensive and flexible nutrient profiling system.  It encompasses 27 nutrients: eleven vitamins, eight minerals, protein, fiber, antioxidant activity as measured by total ORAC, lutein + zeaxanthin, linoleic acid, linolenic acid, lycopene, and choline.

A food’s TOC-NQI score is based on the food’s total contribution to daily nutrient needs using the above 27 nutrients.  The food’s contibution of a given nutrient, say vitamin C, is a simple ratio – the amount of vitamin C in the food, divided by the amount of vitamin C the person should ingest in a day to promote health.

TOC-NQI ranks food nutritional quality per serving of food, per calorie, or per gram.

Just how nutritious are the foods listed in the Organic Essentials shopper’s guide? Most people consume about 20 servings of food and beverages in a given day.  To meet a person’s basic nutritional needs, each of these 20 would need a TOC-NQI value of 0.05, given that all 27 nutrients were present in just the right amounts across the 20 servings, but no more.  All of the foods listed in the Organic Essentials guide deliver significantly more nutrition per serving than 0.05.

DO YOU KNOW?…

Organic produce contains, on average, 25% higher levels of 11 key nutrients compared to conventionally grown produce.