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How salad became a major source of food poisoning in the US
- lainga 8y agotl;dr from 3rd section: salad became a major source of food in the US.
- Esperaux 8y agopeople should never trust prepackaged meals to be safe on their own
- ryanworl 8y agoIf anyone has even a passing interest in food safety from a scientific or academic perspective, the Food Safety Talk podcast is fantastic. The lawyer quoted in the article is friends with the two hosts. http://foodsafetytalk.com/ http://foodsafetytalk.com/
- rdtsc 8y ago> Leafy vegetables were also the second most common cause of food poisoning-related hospitalizations. I never quite got to like lettuce. I don't know why people like it. It just doesn't have much taste, its leaves are too big, so have to shove them in awkwardly. I'd rather have a salad with chopped ripe tomatoes, onions / chives, cucumbers, cabbage, etc. Even with those, I often wonder if people don't eat more veggies because American veggies from grocery store taste like plastic. So eating them is a chore, because well, it's "healthy" but not because they taste good.
- lainga 8y agoMy grandparents would always tell me it was one of the few fresh vegetables widely available in 1950s America. Forget ripe tomatoes, let alone chives - you got a mound of iceberg lettuce with boiled eggs (them coming from the cuisine of the Punjab no less).
- newnewpdro 8y agoOrganic produce from local growers, if you're lucky to have a grocery store or farmers market near you selling the stuff, is simply incredible. Even the lettuce is delicious with nothing on it. I just spent winter away from my usual SF bay area haunts and have had to shop at a grocery store more along the lines of a Safeway with a small selection of overpriced corporate organics on a little island in the produce department. This stuff is maybe slightly better than the conventional produce sold alongside it, it's pretty awful, and really helps me appreciate why most of the public doesn't seem to see any difference with organic vs. conventional outside of the price. It really is an exceptional privilege to have access to quality organic produce in the USA.
- wj 8y agoAgreed. Once I discovered it I realized that tomatoes from the farmer's market might as well have been a completely different fruit from the tomatoes at the grocery store as the taste difference was that striking. I went from being pretty indifferent about tomatoes to them being my favorite fruit/vegetable. Just in the last couple of years I have noticed the same with lettuce that I have been gifted from a neighbor's garden. I think I missed my window for planting it this year but plan to next year.
- koolba 8y agoSalad is an excuse to eat dressing.
- cryptoz 8y agoI think the McDonald's ceasar salad has more calories than the big Mac.
- dangrossman 8y agoThere's no caesar salad on McDonald's US menu right now, but last time they offered one, it was 440 calories including grilled chicken, dressing and croutons. A Big Mac is 540. They did once offer a kale and caesar salad with crispy chicken that hit 730 calories with dressing in Canada.
- downrightmike 8y agoYeah, drinking it is way easier /s
- adrr 8y agoThats like saying french fries are an excuse for eating ketchup or other condiment. You would never eat/drink salad dressing by itself.
- eigenstuff 8y agoHave you ever had woodstock dressing, tho? Because I was just thinking to myself for the millionth time earlier today about how I would TOTALLY drink a glass of it/eat it as a soup if it wasn't, y'know, 100 calories for 2 tablespoons or whatever. Sorry not sorry. (Annie's makes it but it's almost impossible to find in stores, so here's the recipe if you're a fan of umami flavors: https://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-detail.asp?recipe=698649 https://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-detail.asp?recipe=698... )
- werdnapk 8y agoNot sure what your definition of lettuce is. All greens or just something like iceberg? If you want taste, then eat Arugula... loads of flavor. Arugula and spinach are probably the two main greens I consume.
- petre 8y agoHave you tried fresh spinach instead of lettuce in your salad? I like it a lot, it tastes better. There are also other greens, rocket is quite popular in Europe. We also eat ramsoms in the spring - it tastes like garlic but has a fainter taste without the garlic stink.
- eric_the_read 8y agoSpinach isn't much better[1]. [1] https://www.medicaldaily.com/e-coli-contamination-found-7-spinach-harvests-how-can-you-prevent-food-poisoning-247027 https://www.medicaldaily.com/e-coli-contamination-found-7-sp...
- goda90 8y agoBut spinach can be cooked and still taste decent, so it has that on most lettuce.
- rdtsc 8y agoI do like spinach more. I was thinking mostly of romaine lettuce.
- athenot 8y agoThe lettuce readily available in American grocery stores doesn't have much taste, yes. But try some fresh Laitue, Bibb, Mâche, Endives or Arugula. There's a world of flavor in lettuce but as with most other things here we have a abundance of good-looking, large, bland lettuce.
- felipellrocha 8y agoThat's largely a problem in the US. All produce looks really good, but are all noticeably bland when compared to produce you can find in other countries.
- vermontdevil 8y agoIts like tomatoes. Store bought tomatoes taste bland. Big difference than growing your own in the backyard. Juicy and thick!
- swebs 8y agoWhat's with the American specifier? We have Iceberg lettuce in Europe too and it's just as shit. It's the cheapest so it's everywhere.
- lr4444lr 8y agoAmerican lettuce mixes are actually pretty unique for how tasteless they are compared to the availability of edible greens in nature. If you were to make a salad of, say, arugula, endive, radicchio, and various leafy herbs like basil and oregano, you'd have quite the taste sensation. Add a simple vinaigrette to that, and tell me when to show up for dinner.
- RandomInteger4 8y agoPeople don't eat more veggies, because (1) The people forget about them and then they go bad, thus instilling a mental stigma about veggies, and (2) food deserts.
- TheCapn 8y agoCabbage? But not lettuce? You can shred the lettuce all the same.
- rdtsc 8y agoYeah I find cabbage has a stronger flavor than romaine lettuce.
- logfromblammo 8y agoIceberg lettuce is the most pointless waste of time and money in the entire agricultural industry. You are absolutely correct in your assessment of vegetable quality. Everything is bred for transportability, appearance, and shelf life, then flavor and nutrition go out the window. It's exactly the same story as the Red Delicious apple. They were bred to be very red, not at all sour, and to not bruise too easily. So they look good, but taste like garbage. I have noticed the same devolution in watermelons. You used to be able to get huge, arm-filling watermelons, juicy and sweet, but shot through with big black seeds. Now at the supermarket they're all seedless, nearly flavorless, and small. Same with strawberries. They used to be small, but intensely flavored, and ranging from very sweet to slightly sour. Now you can find them as big as your clenched fist, but then bite into one, and it just tastes like dirty water. I don't buy food to look at it. It seems like the greatest minds of the last agricultural generation have all been wasted on making foods look like they'll taste good, and look like they're worth the money, but then become a total disappointment to your tongue.
- rdtsc 8y agoYes, agreed. My parents used to have a small garden growing up and we grew tomatoes once in a while. It was pain, because they needed a lot of watering, but they had an intense delicious flavor. I'd just go and eat them one after another right off the vine. Here in US it's hard to find that flavor. Some of the little green and yellow mixed tomatoes kind of have flavor, they are call heirloom tomatoes, I usually buy those. > They used to be small, but intensely flavored, and ranging from very sweet to slightly sour. The most delicious strawberries I have ever had, were wild strawberries. They were very smaller, about the size of a raspberry or smaller and would find them the woods in Eastern Europe when we went to pick mushrooms. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fragaria_vesca https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fragaria_vesca
- balls187 8y agoCome to seattle, try the Steak Salad at the Brooklyn. It's an iceberg wedge salad, with steak (hopefully that part was obvious). It's great.
- 8y ago
- op00to 8y agoAmerican grocery store veggies taste exactly the same as any other industrialized nation that participates in a globalized food chain.
- contingencies 8y agoCut the lettuce before serving. Use chopsticks instead of forks, which after you are accustomed to chopsticks are frankly ridiculously barbaric implements. I am western but I loathe eating many things with blunt knives and clunky forks. Learn to appreciate the texture and color of food, not just the taste.
- rdtsc 8y agoI do like chopsticks. Especially for kimchi, I can eat and ungodly amount of that very quickly. And I use it for other foods as well. Never quite got used to eating rice with chopsticks though, end up getting frustrated and switch to a fork after some time.
- bluGill 8y agoNot mentioned is that organic farming doesn't allow irradiation which would kill e-coli. Everybody looks for organic foods thinking they are better but the truth is organic doesn't mean either.
- SlowRobotAhead 8y agoIn what way would irradiation make a food not-organic? I believe you, it seems stupid enough to be true.
- eggpy 8y agoThe USDA designates that to be stamped 'certified organic' the food can't be processed via irradiation, simple as that[0]. [0] https://www.usda.gov/media/blog/2011/12/16/organic-101-what-organic-farming-and-processing-doesnt-allow https://www.usda.gov/media/blog/2011/12/16/organic-101-what-...
- gowld 8y agoUSDA rules aside, how would you define "organic". It's a rather ... synthetic concept to begin with.
- makr17 8y agoContains carbon?
- logfromblammo 8y agoIf it's good enough for my chemistry professors, it's good enough for me. Is there any way to regulate marketing terms so that hippy-dippy ad-men don't seize upon words that have meaning and then proceed to dilute that meaning with steaming loads of nonsense? I'd be happy enough if a label said "this has never touched poop".
- vkou 8y agoI believe it's defined as 'you feel good after buying it'. It's why petro-chemical fertilizers, or the crops grown with them are in-organic, but passing corn grown with petro-chemical fertilizers through the digestive system of a cow magically makes said fertilizer organic.
- Dowwie 8y agoPass on lettuce and try lacinato kale
- gshakir 8y agoIn South Asian countries, veggies are cooked throughly and that has brought out some exciting dishes. Eating uncooked food is always a risk.
- petre 8y agoYou can also steam them if you don't want the taste to fade away by boiling or frying. But I always appreciate a good curry.
- djrogers 8y agoThat’s it - I’m going back to outsourcing all of my leafy greens consumption. I’ll let the cattle and swine eat it for me, then I’ll eat them!
- dev_throw 8y agoSmart move, indeed. A minor chance of contact with E.Coli seems more dangerous than documented certain heart disease, cancer, and wait for it.. more E.Coli!
- vilmosi 8y agoIf you read the article, there's a bigger chance of getting E. Coli from greens... Also, I believe that was a joke.
- windexh8er 8y agoThis is most certainly untrue. All you have to do is consider the fact that all uncooked meats come with a warning. This is because it is well known, and admitted by the meat and egg industries, that raw and undercooked meats and eggs are unsafe for consumption. This is because of the environments they come out of. Greens on the other hand are not fertilized with manure or subject to E.Coli laden environments during processing. The only unsafe greens are mainly things like alfalfa sprouts that can come into contact in the processing chain. I'm surprised at all of the disinformation.
- Fomite 8y agoThe last big E. coli outbreak in spinach was because of an E. coli laden environment - notably, wild hogs in the field, and then contamination in a washing pool.
- blattimwind 8y ago"all uncooked meats come with a warning" ... like... literally? There is a warning printed on all raw meat packaging in the US?
- panarky 8y agoSo what can the salad eater do to be safe? Some pathogens can't be washed off. Others can if you scrub, but not if you rinse. If you buy the whole head, pathogens can hide in the core. And if you buy pre-cut bagged salad, how can you wash that? What if you drench the salad in vinegar before eating it, will that kill E. coli O157:H7?
- TheCapn 8y agoWhat I've heard (and I'm only citing unverified word of mouth) is that E.Coli is within the leaf itself, it comes from the water it used. You cannot wash it off or clean it. An infected head of lettuce is garbage.
- heedlessly3 8y agowhat if you boil the vegetables in water?
- panarky 8y agoUgh. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01140671003767834 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/011406710037678... Skip down to the section on "Internalization of bacteria into deeper plant tissues"
- cortesoft 8y ago> And if you buy pre-cut bagged salad, how can you wash that? Not sure what you mean? Why can't you wash it?
- panarky 8y agoIt's chopped into hundreds of tiny pieces. Do you wash each piece individually? Or dump it into a bowl of water and swirl it around?? And then your salad is a soggy soup!
- brewdad 8y agoTry one of these: https://www.amazon.com/OXO-Good-Grips-Salad-Spinner/dp/B00004OCKR/ https://www.amazon.com/OXO-Good-Grips-Salad-Spinner/dp/B0000...
- aphextron 8y ago>Instead of shipping heads of lettuce or large carrot sticks that people wash, we chop them and mix them up in processing, then package them in plastic bags. In that process, Marler said, “The bacteria has a chance to grow. And a lot of people get sick.” This confirms what I had always been suspicious of. Those prepackaged veggies sitting in plastic bags are just a few degrees of temperature away from being perfect bacterial breeding grounds. Don't ever buy that crap.
- Alupis 8y agoOr... rinse it before you eat it. Just because it's already chopped and in a bag doesn't mean it suddenly doesn't need rinsing. If I recall, not rinsing pre-chopped lettuce was one of the things pointed out to Chipotle after their recent debacle, that may have helped avoid making customers sick.
- brians 8y agoE coli don't rinse off; they form a biofilm with significant adhesion. You have to cook them to kill them.
- Alupis 8y agoYou're right - I think it was more-or-less to prevent norovirus and other forms of food poisoning.
- greglindahl 8y agoDoesn't Norovirus mostly spread from people not washing their hands after they poop?
- goldenkey 8y agoOnce I found out about biofilms from the cat fountain I built from NSF silver infused antimicrobial tubing, I never can look at plumbing piping the same. Biofilm formed even on the parts that should have been impervious. Even areas where water is constantly running and splashing. First the minerals deposit on the antimicrobial surfaces, and then the bacteria attach and film. I had always thought that constant high pressure water usage would flush whatever crap is in a pipe. Preventing any real contamination. Well...a quick google search shows that biofilm on residential water pipes is a huge problem. High pressure activity does not eliminate biofilm...of course stagnant water is more of an issue...
- athenot 8y ago> Marler also blames Americans’ love of convenience for the problem. “Mass-produced chopped, bagged lettuce that gets shipped around the US amplifies the risk of poisoning,” he said. > Instead of shipping heads of lettuce or large carrot sticks that people wash, we chop them and mix them up in processing, then package them in plastic bags. In that process, Marler said, “The bacteria has a chance to grow. And a lot of people get sick.” So it's not just the lettuce heads that get contaminated, it's how they are processed. This is reminiscent of the issues with large meat packing plants. I've often wondered what effect that processing has on lettuce. Personally I prefer to buy a head and clean it myself because it tends to last a lot longer than a bag that's usually full of consendate and mashed onto the shelves by store employees, bruising half the contents...
- RandomInteger4 8y agoThat's something I think about when buying mushrooms as well; there's the chopped mushrooms, and then there's the whole mushrooms, and the former always looks kind of worse for ware so to speak, as if the chopping process transmits bacteria from the blades to the mushrooms. I buy the whole mushrooms for that reason and simply because they're cheaper.
- moate 8y agoIt's less bacteria and more general oxidation. They're not more dangerous, just less pretty (also likely less nutritious since many nutrients are destroyed by oxidation)
- Gibbon1 8y ago> I've often wondered what effect that processing has on lettuce. Yeah the difference is the head of lettuce is alive and the chopped stuff is dead. Better is it's been 'washed' AKA inoculated with whatever bacteria is living in the wash water.
- 21 8y ago> “When it gets processed, you might have four to five farms supplying the processor on any day. So was it farmer one, two, three, or four that was contaminated?” So, track each lettuce head on the blockchain? (I'm joking guys)
- ransom1538 8y agoNot to be graphic here, but when they are picking lettuce where the portable bathroom is - is important. These guys are pushed for time -- and if the potty is too far away... Also, to deal with this, some farms have movable portable bathrooms on wheels that hover over the produce or in between and follow the group, I am sure they leak. https://toddbigelow.photoshelter.com/image/I0000BLSwooXCRac https://toddbigelow.photoshelter.com/image/I0000BLSwooXCRac
- DanAndersen 8y agoThis is an important part of the equation, and it's unfortunate that the article doesn't go into sufficient detail about the actual mechanisms by which the infection can happen. If anything, the article's mentions of "people are simply eating more fresh produce these days" and "some contamination can still slip through" foster an attitude of helplessness, as if this is a new normal we need to get used to. Poor living and working conditions for migrant farmworkers is a contributing factor to outbreaks like this. Workers who are present illegally or are otherwise marginalized and taken advantage of, even if they are part of legal guest-worker programs, suffer conditions where poor housing facilities or the need to work under great time pressures leads to inadequate sanitation. A 2017 story [0] illustrates this: >Kristina Espinoza, a labor department investigator who recently visited the farm, described a "makeshift labor camp" that was "dangerous" and "unsanitary," according to court documents. [...] Gonzalez had workers shower in nine stalls inside a cargo container; there was no functional sewage system, so wastewater accumulated underneath the container, Espinoza said. The electrical cord used to light the facility was exposed to standing water, posing a risk of electrocution, according to court documents. The workers shared one toilet in the trailer and had access to port-a-potties. [0] http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-farmworker-abuse-20170510-story.html http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-farmworker-abuse-20170...
- extrapickles 8y agoNot only that, but farmers need to sterilize sewage before using it as fertilizer. Some will claim they do this, and then pocket the difference.
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- 2muchcoffeeman 8y agoWhat does ‘coring lettuce’ mean? Cutting out what we know as a head of lettuce? Are they saying that once the e.coli is trapped it can start spreading inside the lettuce?
- gregable 8y agoKeep things in perspective though. That article mentions 3,000 people per year die from food poisoning, and leafy vegetables are the cause of 1/4 of that, or 750 deaths/year. However, heart disease alone causes 610,000 deaths per year (https://www.cdc.gov/heartdisease/facts.htm https://www.cdc.gov/heartdisease/facts.htm). "Individuals who ate more than 5 servings of fruits and vegetables per had roughly a 20 percent lower risk of coronary heart disease" (https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/what-should-you-eat/vegetables-and-fruits/ https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/what-should-you...). 20% of 610,000 = 122,000/year. That the heart disease risk reduction is 162x more significant than the food poisoning risk increase, should be more than enough to outweigh the risk of food poisoning. However, and less clear, there is also evidence that leafy green vegetables protect against diabetes, cancer, dementia, and Alzheimer's.
- pkaye 8y agoOr just cook your leafy vegetables so both risks are reduced.
- DanAndersen 8y agoI remember living in China for an extended period of time and never seeing raw vegetables as part of a meal; locals I spoke with found the very concept unsanitary. It's unfortunate that some are advocating just abandoning chapters of our local cuisine as being no longer viable in our era. I'd rather we more strongly enforce regulations so we can hold onto our salads.
- Symbiote 8y agoChina has a long history of using human waste as fertilizer on fields, so only eating cooked vegetables was good hygiene. http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/green_room/features/2008/the_big_necessity/in_one_end_and_out_the_burner.html http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/green_room/...
- greglindahl 8y ago
- staunch 8y agoI think most citizens would support a blanket fine of $1 million for every CDC-verified victim. It would help the victims and possibly eliminate the problem.
- didibus 8y agoOkay, so how do I lower my risks? Should I stop buying pre-washed? Should I buy local? I like my salads, how do I get it safely on my plate?
- Fomite 8y agoDon't treat pre-washed as pre-washed. Wash it again.
- superdaniel 8y agoThis is actually not recommended: And while the C.D.C. recommends washing all produce with water, including heads of lettuce, it does not recommend washing other forms of bagged lettuce, which has already been washed before bagging. “Your chances of contaminating it in your kitchen” — with contaminants that may already be on your kitchen countertop, hands or elsewhere — “are actually higher than if you didn’t wash the salad greens,” notes Dr. Gieraltowski. source: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/19/well/eat/romaine-lettuce-salad-food-poisoning-e-coli.html https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/19/well/eat/romaine-lettuce-...
- Fomite 8y agoThat's interesting. I get the opposite answer from most of the people I know who work in food-borne infectious diseases.
- SmellyGeekBoy 8y agoHas a salad ever killed you? No? Well then carry on as you are...
- didibus 8y agoWe really haven’t seen kale and some of the other greens [with contamination] problems, at least not yet Okay, so which green counts? All I eat are spinach, kale, arugula, bok choy and the likes. The article seems really lacking in details.
- tzakrajs 8y agoThe reason vegetables are poisonous is because of the animal waste that is being used to grow plants. If there wasn't such a huge livestock industry, people wouldn't be using their excrement for fertilizer and our plants would be safer.
- op00to 8y agoIt’s not animal waste. It’s human waste.
- georgebarnett 8y agoIts both. Runoff from factory farms is a serious issue.
- Fomite 8y agoThere's also animals living in that field that aren't livestock.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- ghostly_s 8y agoWhat are other natural fertilizer options?
- logfromblammo 8y agoFallowing and plow-under, included in a rotation that includes nitrogen-fixers. Application of volcanic tuff rock dust.
- jonnycoder 8y agoHydroponic lettuce is simply the easiest thing I've grown. I'm surprised I don't see it mentioned more often. I bought an Agrobrite 4 bulb T5 light on Amazon that runs 216watts. The math works out to $15/month if running 16 hours a day. It takes about 2-3 weeks for the 9 seeds to start, but I was swimming in lettuce in no time. It tastes excellent too. Search for Jeb Gardner on youtube for some entertaining lettuce videos grown in an office environment.
- mythrwy 8y agoSeems like Mesculan type greens would work well with that setup. Can harvest in a little over a month (well outdoors, I don't know with that light but maybe similar). It's mixed type greens, mustards, lettuce etc. Cut when leaves are about the size of the business part of a spoon. Cut it so it comes back and you can get 3 or 4 cuttings per planting. Plant it successively (i.e every week or two plant another section) so it's constantly available. Faster to harvest, more sustained harvest, and it tastes better than lettuce because you can put little greens like collards and arugula in the mix. Indoors you'd avoid the insect troubles that plague these tiny greens outside as well.
- mikekchar 8y agoThe other cool thing about this is that you can let one go to seed and you will be swimming in seeds as well (though it's tricky to manage the light height because the flower stalk is quite tall). Hydroponics are not just great for food, they are awesome for people suffering from lack of light exposure in winter months. When I lived in Canada, I used to put a 4 foot long plant stand with fluorescent daylight bulbs along each wall of my apartment. I can't remember how long I had the light timer set for (probably 14 hours). It's incredible the difference. These days you can get creative with various LED solutions and probably do even better.
- idoh 8y agoI happen to be growing lettuce (and other things) in my office at work, and I can also attest to how easy it is. Only issue is that they need to be watered every other day.
- lifeisstillgood 8y agoIt's notable that "fish and shellfish just 6 percent." I suspect the reason is simple - we distrust shellfish preparation, and take extra care. With salads ... I mean yesterday I tipped a bag of salad into a bowl, stuck some dressing on an ate it. Either salad bag makers are going to go the extra mile with "Washed in frozen nitrogen by astronauts for your safety" or the industry is dead.
- dlwdlw 8y agoOne interesting thing ive noticed about chinese culture are the heuristics around cleanliness. Vegetables are always washed vigorously and cooked. Salads and sandwiches and other raw-like things are rather disliked. Hands are washed after petting dogs/cats. Slippers always worn around the house. Dislike of carpets. Windows opened every morning for fresh air. Other random stuff. The safety heuristics cant be delegated to a larger system as one doesn't exists so individual households maintain this knowledge and many of them turn into habitual preference.
- hideo 8y agoFor some reason your comment shows grayed out to me, making me think it's been downvoted. I don't know why this would be downvoted. FWIW I've seen the same behaviors you described in most developing economies where people don't seem to trust the larger system. I don't know if the end result is any better - food borne illnesses are still quite common despite these 'heuristics' (as you aptly named them), but there might be far more causes than just unclean veggies.
- pmoleri 8y agoInteresting. I often wonder if dressing (mainly vinegar and salt), is one of those preferences that play a role in salad safety.
- fma 8y agoI remember watching TV growing up... Full house or whatever family sitcom. The kids laid the bed with their shoes on, school clothes. My mom comments on how dirty that is. Additionaly it seems like only textbook are Americans using paper towels to open bathroom doors after washing their hands. My mom instilled that at a young age (I'm 36 now). Now it irritates me to see a Dyson hand dryer, and have to open the bathroom door by pulling it.
- interfixus 8y agoFrom a European perspective, I so often notice this in American movies. Everybody constantly with shoes in beds an sofas, apparently without a thought. Always grosses me out - it simply would not ever occur to me to put my shoes on furniture.
- jp57 8y agotl;dr— people eat more salads now.
- davidw 8y agoBe curious how the US compares to Europe. We often ate packaged salads there for the convenience factor, so it's not like everyone is lovingly hand-washing their artisanal lettuce leaves ...
- contingencies 8y agoThe solution is clearly automation. Less humans, higher reliability processes, better tracking of environmental factors (humidity, temperature, etc.) and time in storage/transit. Faster and more modern supply chains with faster and higher reliability unit processes mean lower risks. The area is evolving: for example there has been a shift in Europe from chlorine washes to washing with ozone or ozonated water as well as increased use of UVC. It seems the rest of the world is yet to catch up. In the US https://omidyar.com/ https://omidyar.com/ recently funded http://safetraces.com/ http://safetraces.com/ ... we actually reached out to them this week but haven't heard back at all. I suspect high impact large scale improvements may be popularized in China with European technology.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- eecc 8y ago3000 victims/year?! When is the POTUS addressing the Nation to launch a War on Food? Someone must end this carnage of innocents at the hand of terrorist salads!
- _nalply 8y agoI really wonder what's the problem. Either the factory or the restaurant washes the salad for you or you do it yourself. Here in an European country I can buy pre-washed salad like sliced sugarloaf or lettuce. I toss this directly on my plate and chow away. It's more expensive, but it's convenient and probably safe. I trust the shop to sell me good quality.
- mattbessey 8y agoThe article explicitly states that washing, even triple washing, is not enough
- mattbessey 8y agoActually everything you wrote is directly contradicted in the article, so perhaps consider reading it before commenting?
- _nalply 8y agoYes, I re-read but decided to leave the comment as is. Because contaminated lettuce shouldn't be sold at all. Contaminated lettuce is just defective produce. In other words: Just buy non-contaminated lettuce pre-washed or you wash it yourself. Problem solved because quality is good.
- SmellyGeekBoy 8y agoI'm loving this whole debate. People have eaten unwashed food for millennia. Now all of a sudden our food is only safe to eat if it's been sterilised with radiation!?
- speedplane 8y agoTrue, but a millennia ago, you'd be lucky to make it to 30. I think we have higher standards by now.
- projektir 8y agoI don't know why people in this thread are asking how you avoid this. You don't have to. It's not a huge amount. Things have risks, and that's OK.
- Double_a_92 8y agoWhy do people even eat salad (lettuce)? It tastes awful unless you drown it in sauce...
- PaulAJ 8y agoSounds like the main take-away from this is that you should stick to "whole" vegetables, and avoid bags of chopped and sliced veg.