Since Bea mentioned the dirty veggies I thought I would find a list. Here's one I found:


Here's one for the most pesticide residue.



Both can be found here with the article: Organic fruits and vegetables: Which to buy organic and why « The Awesome Baby Blog!

Good lists. I wash all of Ruby's veggies in that GSE. Hope that gets it all off.

Thank you for that, very helpful! I usually buy all organic just because, but the list is very useful.

hehehe but I like my veggies dirty..................

Thank you for this info, I love peaches but must get off the chemicals this year!

Question... what is the "cut-off" for a safe residue score? The top list has sweet potato as 10 safest but the score is still 33... is that safe?

No, it does not. Especially with thin skinned fruits or veggies like apples, pears, etc because the chemicals go right through it and end up in the 'meat'. That's why certain produce ALWAYS needs to be organic.

It has to do with a lot of things. For example, the fact that watermelons or cantaloupes have a chemical residue doesn't really matter because the skin is so thick that the pesticides don't go through. And it also has to do with the type of pesticide they use on that particular crop. Some crops need all different kinds while some only one and, if that one is not too bad, it's considered safe. I once read that they use over 30 different kinds of pesticides on apples...

I was dicing potatoes today for our (human) dinner, and Aruba seemed interested, so I gave her a chunk. Is that okay? It was peeled, no eyes (I know they can be poisonous, not just to parrots bt humans as well) but raw. I know peeled raw potato has little nutrional value but was just wondering about a parrots' dietary point of view.

Well, potatoes are tubers (roots) so what we eat (the white 'meat') is where they store everything they 'suck' out of the soil and that means all the bad things like pesticides and fertilizers so, unless your potatoes were organic, you shouldn't have given her any (potatoes are on the 'bad' list and have been for years). But the fact that it was raw wouldn't have hurt her, potatoes are edible even without cooking as long as they are not green. And the eyes are not toxic. It's the leaves, stems, flowers and fruits that are not good (they are relatives of the nightshade).