Salad Is Bullshit

No, Kim Kardashian!

Consumer Reports Magazine ran tests on "prewashed" and "triple-washed" salad greens sold in plastic clamshells or bags and found bacteria "that are common indicators of poor sanitation and fecal contamination—in some cases, at rather high levels." Out of 208 containers representing 16 brands purchased at stores in Connecticut, New Jersey, and New York, 39 percent had "an unacceptable level" of total coliforms and 23 percent were heavy with enterococcus, as determined by "industry experts." Those two things sound like something you don't want to eat, and Google confirms that indeed they are!

The bacteria Enterococcus can cause urinary tract infections, bacteremia, bacterial endocarditis, diverticulitis, and meningitis, while coliforms "are abundant in the feces of warm-blooded animals," thus sprach Wikipedia. According to the report, national brands including Dole, Earthbound Farm Organic, and Fresh Express, plus regional and store brands, had at least one package with relatively high levels of total coliforms or enterococcus.

Ugh, we hit the salad bar almost every day and thought we only had to worry about the occasional "homeless guy squirting urine and feces" incident. [via The Awl]

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By John Del Signore in Food on February 2, 2010 4:38 PM

Comments [rss]

NannyState

If people would only learn to cook their salads for at least ten minutes, none of this would happen.

Guest

I just scrub all my salad greens with soap and water and then soak them in Purell Hand Sanitizer for an hour. That, of course, is before running them in the dishwasher on the pot scrubber cycle.

eat vegans

Then again, Bear Grylls eats feces all the time and hes healthy as an ox

rapscallion

You know all that fecal matter is from cows, right? The cows in a CAFO shit in the same spot until someone trucks it away, and when it rains it runs down and infects all the farms along the way.

Not sayin' I don't eat beef ... but saying that salads aren't really the problem here.

blakewallington

As long as this doesn't affect the salad greens content in my prepackaged fecal matter purchases I'm willing to look the other way.

Snoopy

After looking at the picture of "Miss Salad 2010" again, might I ask the question, "Are there any pictures of her standing vertically without support?"

valeriob

Most Boston lettuce is grown by hydroponics (sp?).

No dirt, no fertalizers, no pesticides, no chemicals. Just indoor pools of awesomely leafy deliciousness.

Downside is the price, but it's worth it. It's sweeter and more buttery, if you will.

Awesome Simpsons reference btw.

Clarice City

And we know how much NY loves Boston.

(Boston lettuce rocks though.)

Thinky Think

Damnit! I just bought some earth bound veggies yesterday. Crap! I guess this means its laxative time.

Snoopy

Dude, they are way tastier if you take them out of potting soil prior to eating them.

babyhitler

what's grosser? finding out that salad has shit in it or that bacon bits is made out of pig genitalia?

JenChungsBaby

If you've done shrooms then you're probably used to the taste of a little shit.

Dead Himmler

I would say the shit because you can get sick from it. Pig genitalia cooked is healthy and tasty!!

Snoopy

Now if we only served that at Gitmo I'm sure we wouldn't need water sports.

NannyState

*pumps fist*

Snoopy

Is that Snooki's better looking younger sister?

SP

Save money - buy real heads of lettuce instead of pre washed bagged shit. Produces much less waste too. Buy a fucking salad spinner and wash your own salad. It will lst longer in your fridge too.

Better yet, fuck salad, eat MEAT.

pigeon

Right. Because meat is never contaminated. Oh wait..

silver

And how will you get your salad any cleaner than the engineered industrial machines that bagged salad companies use?

ihaveopinions

I'm speculating here, but I don't even know if the problem is a function of the cleaning. I have heard (and no, I'm not going to post links, because I don't remember, and I'm not a journalist, so there!) that the problem has to do with the initial product--the bagged salad comes from fields that are adjacent to/downstream of livestock, which equals poo, which equals e coli and such.

Our best bet is probably to buy local (which is more possible in this city than it was in my suburban hometown that was actually 10 minutes from actual farms) and organic--to be certified, plants must be grown a certain distance/with specific blocks put up to prevent runoff. And the washing part, too.