PSA – Wash Those Pre-Washed Salad Greens
Recent research from the Consumer Reports Magazine found that those bagged salad mixes, most claiming to be pre-washed and ready to eat, aren’t as clean as you’d like them to be. Thankfully, what they found wasn’t e coli, salmonella or anything as dreadful as that. Instead, in their sample of 208 bags (representing 16 brands) they found bacteria like coliform or enterococcus that could only get there one way – fecal contamination.
Several industry experts [that Consumer Reports] consulted suggested that for leafy greens, an unacceptable level of total coliforms or enterococcus is 10,000 or more colony forming units per gram (CFU/g) or a comparable estimate. In our tests, 39 percent of samples exceeded that level for total coliforms and 23 percent for enterococcus.
Tasty.
Anyway…The bagged salad varied widely in amount of contamination, but the ones farthest from their sell-by date were often better. As such, Consumer Reports suggest that you buy packages as far from their use-by date as you can find. And, of course, wash your greens. They say it won’t get rid of all the bacteria, but it will help to remove residual soil.
Happy salad eating, everyone!
March 13, 2010
Tags: agriculture, education, factory farms, Health, heroes, waste Posted in: Fun Food Facts, Health, Science & Technology
One Response
A few workers in our area got Salmonella poisoning. It is a good thing that they did not die and they have fully recovered. `
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