Buying bagged, prewashed produce is no guarantee of safety, either. And in and , 19 people in nine states became ill with listeriosis after eating packaged leafy greens; all were hospitalized, and one person died. The safest move is to stick with leafy greens that you cook. That step is most important for people especially vulnerable to listeria infections. You might also be able to prevent listeria infections by eating leafy greens soon after you buy them, before bacteria has a chance to multiply, Thesmar says.
Finally, avoiding raw greens at restaurants may also help protect against foodborne illness: 85 percent of outbreaks linked to greens stemmed from restaurant meals, according to a CDC study. I've covered health and nutrition my entire career, so I know how to separate science from hype. Whether it's about food labels, sunscreen, or food safety, my goal is to deliver information that makes following a healthy lifestyle easier. Healthy cooking is a favorite hobby, and friends think I'm crazy, but I can happily spend hours grocery shopping.
Follow me on Twitter. Sign In. Become a Member. Remember Me. Forgot username or password? Not a member? Need further assistance? Please call Member Services at Consumer Reports found the bacteria in prewashed and unbagged products.
Here's how to stay safe when eating greens. Since the product is already past its Oct. Recalled products include :. Consumers can find the UPC code at the bottom left corner of the back of the salad bags. As of Friday, when the recall was announced, no illnesses have been connected to any of the recalled salads. Dole announced the recall after discovering a garden salad sample that tested positive for listeria in a random sample test from the Department of Agriculture in Georgia.
Specifically, the salad recall includes specific lots of four bagged garden salad products produced by Dole and sold under multiple brand names. The pre-washed and ready-to-eat salads contain iceberg lettuce, shredded carrot, and red cabbage. They were distributed in 10 Eastern and Southern states in U.
All of the recalled bags have a best if used by date of October 25, , meaning they should no longer be available at grocery stores.
However, consumers who have already purchased the salads may still have them in their fridges. Officials discovered the risk of contamination when a random sample test of a single bagged garden salad, conducted by the Department of Agriculture in Georgia, came back positive for Listeria monocytogenes. During to , 51 foodborne disease outbreaks linked to leafy greens mainly lettuce were reported to CDC. Five were multistate outbreaks that led CDC to issue warnings to the public.
Among those, two outbreaks were linked to packaged salads and two were linked to romaine lettuce. The specific type of leafy greens could not be determined for the other outbreak. The 1, illnesses caused by those 51 outbreaks represent only a small proportion of all illnesses caused by contaminated leafy greens in those years.
Some outbreaks never lead to consumer warnings because the food is no longer in stores, restaurants, or homes by the time it is identified as the source.
Usually the source is not identified, and people might not even suspect that their illness was caused by contaminated food. Also, most outbreaks affect people in only one state, so local or state health departments lead work to identify, investigate, and communicate about those outbreaks. Most recently, in and , CDC investigated and issued public warnings on three multistate outbreaks linked to leafy greens. Germs that make people sick can be found in many environments, including in the soil, in the intestines of animals, in refrigerators, and on kitchen surfaces.
Germs can contaminate leafy greens at many points before they reach your plate. Read a study by CDC and partners on what we have learned from ten years of investigating E. Germs that most often cause illness transmitted by leafy vegetables are norovirus , Shiga toxin-producing E.
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