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News: A good reason to wash packaged lettuce

Washing lettuce is a weird little pet peeve of mine. It’s one of those annoying life tasks I’d rather do without. So, I tend to use bags of pre-washed lettuce for my salads—I just tear them open, throw the lettuce in a bowl and voila: Instant salad, no washing or spinning required.

But now this article from the Montreal Gazette has gone ahead and burst my salad-bag bubble. It turns out that a study conducted by the U.S.-based Consumers Union (CU) found that 39 percent of salad bags tested showed the presence of several types of bacteria “found in the human digestive tract.” Ew.

While none of the samples tested positive for deadly bacteria such as Listeria Salmonella or E.coli, the CU is calling for stricter safety standards in the preparation of bagged greens (most of the bags of salad we eat here are produced in the U.S., reports the Gazette), while Canadian food safety experts are urging consumers to wash their greens.

Even though the CU acknowledges the bacteria found in the study won’t make people sick, I’m sufficiently grossed out by these findings. I guess it’s time to dust off my salad spinner and (grudgingly) wash my lettuce.

Do you wash packaged salad greens, even if the bag says they’ve been “pre-washed?” Will these findings change your mind?

Posted by Jennifer Goldberg onFriday, February 5th, 2010 - 6:19pm

3 Comments

I've always washed salad greens, pre-washed and bagged or not. Yes, most of these pre-washed salads are processed in North America, but how they're being handled to point where they're in our homes, we don't know. Why take a chance?

Submitted by Jennifer on Fri, 2010-02-12 11:37am.

Picture this, Niagara Falls Canada, last valentines day weekend, out for a romantic dinner at a popular restaurant, sharing a large ceasar salad with my hunny, when i picked up a funny looking piece of lettuce on my fork. I put it back on my plate and it took a moment for it to sink in that I was looking at a ginormous dragon fly. Needless to say, the restaurant did not charge us for the meal that we did not eat after that but in thier defence said that thier chain is sent pre-washed salads and that they would from that day forward wash thier pre-washed food again.

Submitted by kelly on Thu, 2010-02-11 10:45am.

Personally I don't and I also checked the Health Canada Website about this as well and they do indicate that you do not need to rewash pre-packaged ready-to-eat greens before eating, unless they are sold in open containers, or are exposed to liquids from other foods (i.e. raw meats). I would be very concerned if the bacteria found in the study was not naturally occuring in the digestive tract though. If you eat yogurt, (which I don't), you would also know that it contains many bacteria that are found in the digestive tract and are proven to be good for you. Of course it wouldn't hurt to wash the stuff either.

Submitted by CB on Tue, 2010-02-09 11:48pm.

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