Buying organic groceries isn't as expensive as it used to be, but it's still a significant price jump from nonorganic meat and produce.

If you're going to buy some but not all organic, do so wisely. There are fruits and vegetables more likely to contain pesticides than others, and thus buying pesticide-free versions of them will give you more bang for your organic buck and keep more harmful chemicals off your plate.

To help decide which foods you should buy organic and which ones it might be OK not to, food safety nonprofit Environmental Working Group curates a yearly list of the foods most likely to contain pesticides dubbed "The Dirty Dozen."

To do so, the group analyzed 46,569 samples of 46 fruits and vegetables tested by the US Food and Drug Administration and the Department of Agriculture.

The No. 1 offender of pesticides in the group's latest study? Strawberries. The popular berries had more total instances of chemicals found on them than any other fruit or vegetable included in the sweeping analysis.

Strawberries are the produce most likely to have pesticides, according to the study.

Fruits and vegetables are billed as some of the healthiest foods, but they're also the most likely to pesticides, which are used to protect them from invasive insects, grazing animals and diseases during cultivation. In fact, nearly three-quarters of all nonorganic produce has detectable levels of pesticides by the time it reaches your supermarket shelves or grocery delivery order, according to thestudy.

In general, foods that don't have natural casings or have edible skins such as apples, greens and berries are more likely to contain pesticides. Pieces of produce with commonly removed skin such as avocados and pineapples are far less likely to be tainted. Below you'll find the 12 foods most likely to contain pesticides and the 15 foods least likely to be tainted.

Foods most likely to contain pesticides, according to FDA and USDA data.

Strawberries, spinach and kale are foods you'd be wise to wash thoroughly before eating.

The Dirty Dozen is a good indicator meant to alert consumers to the fruits and vegetables most in need of thorough washing. Even a quick rinse with water or a spritz ofproduce washhelps.

You can also sidestep much of the potential risk by buyingcertified organic fruits and vegetablesthat are free from the use of farming pesticides. Knowing which foods are more likely to contain pesticides might help you decide where to spend that bit of extra money on organic. And as I learned in ananalysis of organic and nonorganic prices, they aren't as expensive as you might think.

It doesn't always make sense to splurge on organic produce.

Conversely, the EWG found these 15 fruits and vegetables Ieast likely to contain pesticides.

Foods with naturally occurring protective skin are far less likely to contain potentially harmful pesticides.

These are the fruits and vegetables least likely to contain pesticides, according to the study:

EWG's methodology involves six measures of pesticide contamination. The analysis focuses on which fruits and vegetables are most likely to contain one or more pesticides but does not measure how much of any one pesticide is on a given piece of produce. You can read more on the EWG's Dirty Dozen in the published study here.

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Always Wash These 12 Fruits and Vegetables Before Eating - CNET