Bagged salad may be a great time-saver, but it's best not to skip the step of giving it a wash before putting it in your bowl.
So says Consumer Reports, which tested 208 containers of pre-made salad for its March issue and found examples of "bacteria that are common indicators of poor sanitation and" -- yuck -- "fecal contamination."
CR says it didn't find any evidence of the extra-nasty E. coli O157:H7, listeria, or salmonella. But a seemingly high percentage of the samples tested had total coliforms or enterococcus that were at "unacceptable levels," according to industry experts consulted by the magazine. In the tests, 39 percent had excessive coliforms and 23 percent had excessive enterococcus.
Salads that were closer to their use-by dates had higher levels of contamination than those that were fresher.
To protect yourself, CR says:
- Buy packages as far from their use-by date as you can find.
- Wash the greens even if the bag or package says it already has been washed. Just water is fine. It won't remove all bacteria but it may remove any bits of soil.
- Be sure to keep salad greens from raw meat.
Comments
i always buy organic bagged lettuce. you cannot believe the amount of pesticides are used to grow lettuce. just rinsing bagged lettuce is not enough to rid them of the toxins. go organic!