Romaine lettuce is less nutritious, more expensive and make you fart more than spinach. The last part is what made me stop buying Romaine for good.
CDC Food Safety Alert: E. Coli Outbreak Linked to Romaine Lettuce
61–70 of 94 posts
Re: CDC Food Safety Alert: E. Coli Outbreak Linked to Romaine Lettuce
#62Earlier quoted context omitted.
Growing lettuce in your garden bears very few risks. Buying lettuce from a store also carriers very free risks if you know the source. Plants are significantly less risk than any red meat or white meat. The way the CDC presents this makes it appear, to the uniformed, that this is a plant borne illness - of which it is not. It's almost certain it is human created through misuse of fecal matter disposal or fertilizer.
You're missing the point. You cook meat the vast majority of the time. This massively reduces the risk of foodborne illness. Lettuce on the other hand, is eaten raw. As a sibling comment mentioned, at best lettuce gets a rinse, if that. So while the source isn't actually the lettuce itself, lettuce is the perfect carrier. This is why produce is the source of half of US food poisonings, while meat and poultry only cau…
I'm not missing the point at all because it's highly unlikely that home food prep adequately cooks food. It's a well known fact more people take on risk of eating undercooked meat and shellfish by choice. And this is part of my original point. You're conflating things that aren't true because of a failure to understand the root cause.
Maybe this can help you educate yourself: http://extension.colostate.edu/topic-areas/nutrition-food-sa...
Ecoli doesn't "grow" on food as you claim. I think you're missing substantial understanding of the subject matter. And your source? Far taken out of context. Try recent findings from historical data compilation by the CDC in 2018:
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/67/ss/ss6710a1.htm
So, your statistic is wrong as of latest compilation of CDC data.
"Amongst 1,281 outbreaks in which the food reported could be classified into a single food category, fish were the most commonly implicated category (222 outbreaks [17%]), followed by dairy (136 [11%]) and chicken (123 [10%]). The food categories responsible for the most outbreak-associated illnesses were chicken (3,114 illnesses [12%]), pork (2,670 [10%]), and seeded vegetables (2,572 [10%]). Multistate outbreaks comprised only 3% of all outbreaks reported but accounted for 11% of illnesses, 34% of hospitalizations, and 54% of deaths."
Again - what you cited is not true.
And a quick overview of common contaminants linked to foods - you'll find meats most prevalent and cross contamination by meats to other foods as the highest risk:
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/food-poisonin...
Re: CDC Food Safety Alert: E. Coli Outbreak Linked to Romaine Lettuce
#63Reminder that if you're getting your lettuce from a local farm at the farmers market, you probably don't have to worry about this. This outbreak is from some industrial romaine lettuce growing and processing operation.
(Yes, it's possible for local produce to be contaminated with E. coli as well. I have no idea if it's more or less likely on average. But it shouldn't be involved in this outbreak, so go ahead and make your salad.)
Re: CDC Food Safety Alert: E. Coli Outbreak Linked to Romaine Lettuce
#64Earlier quoted context omitted.
Growing lettuce in your garden bears very few risks. Buying lettuce from a store also carriers very free risks if you know the source. Plants are significantly less risk than any red meat or white meat. The way the CDC presents this makes it appear, to the uniformed, that this is a plant borne illness - of which it is not. It's almost certain it is human created through misuse of fecal matter disposal or fertilizer.
I am pretty much always going to throw a cut of meat on the grill or in a pan on the stove. This action brings the food up to a temperature where it tends to kill/denature a lot of the bad bugs in the food. I'm likely to just rinse off an apple or lettuce, which may or may not successfully clean the food.
"Tends to kill". So you're saying you always cook all meats at or above recommended internal temperatures? Most people don't enjoy meat overcooked / well done - and that is the conflicting reference point here. Do you eat your steak even medium-well? Then it's not guaranteed to be free from food borne illness and not cooked according to safe food handling instructions by said CDC.
Apples are far less likely to ever carry pathogens because they're harvested from a tree, off the ground and tree farms are not fertilized with feces. And even if they are in proximity you're failing to understand that if a tree has a contaminated water source the entire tree acts as a filter prior to the fruit - a lettuce does not.
Again, misinformation and misunderstanding of the root cause showcase highly in your comment which was my criticism of the original disclosure by the CDC.
Re: CDC Food Safety Alert: E. Coli Outbreak Linked to Romaine Lettuce
#65Earlier quoted context omitted.
I am pretty much always going to throw a cut of meat on the grill or in a pan on the stove. This action brings the food up to a temperature where it tends to kill/denature a lot of the bad bugs in the food. I'm likely to just rinse off an apple or lettuce, which may or may not successfully clean the food.
"Tends to kill". So you're saying you always cook all meats at or above recommended internal temperatures? Most people don't enjoy meat overcooked / well done - and that is the conflicting reference point here. Do you eat your steak even medium-well? Then it's not guaranteed to be free from food borne illness and not cooked according to safe food handling instructions by said CDC. Apples are far less likely to ever c…
Even well done steak is not guaranteed to be free of food borne illness. You really need to know two variables - temperature and time, and one objective - kill rate. Time is the reason that it is safer to eat a sous vide rare pork chop than a grilled rare pork chop.
Re: CDC Food Safety Alert: E. Coli Outbreak Linked to Romaine Lettuce
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
You're missing the point. You cook meat the vast majority of the time. This massively reduces the risk of foodborne illness. Lettuce on the other hand, is eaten raw. As a sibling comment mentioned, at best lettuce gets a rinse, if that. So while the source isn't actually the lettuce itself, lettuce is the perfect carrier. This is why produce is the source of half of US food poisonings, while meat and poultry only cau…
I'm not missing the point at all because it's highly unlikely that home food prep adequately cooks food. It's a well known fact more people take on risk of eating undercooked meat and shellfish by choice. And this is part of my original point. You're conflating things that aren't true because of a failure to understand the root cause. Maybe this can help you educate yourself: http://extension.colostate.edu/topic-area…
[deleted]
Re: CDC Food Safety Alert: E. Coli Outbreak Linked to Romaine Lettuce
#67Lettuce grows outdoors, in the soil. Animals have access to it for weeks or months. Dust happens around it. It is quite likely sprayed with fertilizer or pesticide at some point. Then it is cut by hand. Then it goes to the store where it is fondled by employees and the passing public.
So it's a good idea to wash it (and all produce) very thoroughly and not depend on some process to clean if for you. That means in the case of lettuce separating the leaves. It might be overkill but I usually put a drop or two of bleach in wash water, dunk chopped greens, rinse them well in clean water, then spin them in a centrifugal spinner. Something like this (these things are great) https://www.amazon.com/OXO-Good-Grips-Salad-Spinner/dp/B0000...
Also they sell specific vegetable washes although a little bleach or hydrogen peroxide works well enough for me. Generally I don't eat raw produce at restaurants.
For the record, I worked on a lettuce farm years ago and food safety is very important, but it's a mass produced out door farm operation with manual handling of product. To say nothing of transport and retail. It's better to wash things yourself and be sure. I think in many parts of the world this is better understood, but for some reason in the US we have this disembodied view of where food comes from.
Re: CDC Food Safety Alert: E. Coli Outbreak Linked to Romaine Lettuce
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
Growing lettuce in your garden bears very few risks. Buying lettuce from a store also carriers very free risks if you know the source. Plants are significantly less risk than any red meat or white meat. The way the CDC presents this makes it appear, to the uniformed, that this is a plant borne illness - of which it is not. It's almost certain it is human created through misuse of fecal matter disposal or fertilizer.
I am pretty much always going to throw a cut of meat on the grill or in a pan on the stove. This action brings the food up to a temperature where it tends to kill/denature a lot of the bad bugs in the food. I'm likely to just rinse off an apple or lettuce, which may or may not successfully clean the food.
This action brings the food up to a temperature where it tends to kill/denature a lot of the bad bugs in the food.
Unfortunately that's not enough, because cooking temperatures don't always denature the toxins that the bugs produce, which is what the real problems come from.
Re: CDC Food Safety Alert: E. Coli Outbreak Linked to Romaine Lettuce
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
Forcing workers to drag a "porta potty" through lettuce fields so farmers don't have to pay for the restroom breaks could be causing this. http://crownservicesco.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Ag-and...
If I was a farm worker I wouldn't be too upset about not having to go perhaps a long ways to use a restroom and be able to clean my hands afterwards.
If you were a farm worker who was paid piece rates rather than hourly, you might be less happy about that
Re: CDC Food Safety Alert: E. Coli Outbreak Linked to Romaine Lettuce
#70Wash (obviously) discard any damaged leaves, use plenty of vinegar in dressing, vinegar is quite effective at killing bacteria, balsamic is best, salt, sugar, lemon juice also kill em.