8 Foods You Should Never Buy Organic

man deciding on what kind of avocados to buy at the store

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man deciding on what kind of avocados to buy at the store
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Opt Out of Organic

Buying organic food (especially produce) is all the rage these days, and plenty of shoppers won't touch food that doesn't have a USDA Organic label. But some organic food products might actually be an empty promise and a total waste of money


Here are eight foods you're better off purchasing in their conventional form.

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1. Avocados

Topping the Environmental Working Group (EWG)'s Clean Fifteen list (foods least likely to be contaminated with pesticides), avocados are reportedly the least contaminated food, so there's no need to buy them organic. Generally speaking, fruits with hard, inedible peels (like bananas, papayas, and pineapple) are considered safe to buy in their conventional form since the pesticides don't always make their way past the skin to the inside of the fruit that you eat.

Fresh fish fillets for sale in seafood store
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Still life image of brown and white eggs in cardboard egg cartons
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4. Eggs

You know that whole "What came first: The chicken or the egg" debacle? The complexities extend to organic labels for eggs, too. USDA labels on eggs mean that the hens that laid the eggs were fed organic food, but it doesn't necessarily mean those hens were never given antiobotics, albeit a rarity to use antibiotics in the egg industry. Still, that label might not make too much of a difference after all.


Related: Cage-Free vs. Free-Range Eggs: Are Specialty Eggs Worth the Extra Cash?

Asparagus. Fresh Asparagus.
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5. Asparagus

Despite not having a peel or husk to remove, asparagus rarely contains pesticides according to the EWG, landing it at lucky No. 7 on the trusty Clean Fifteen list. 


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Mexican Spices
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7. Spices

Save money when you stock your spice rack and stay away from organic labels. NPR has even reported that organic spices can contain salmonella, so the whole thing is a crapshoot anyhow. 

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