Article Source: msnbc.com
from:msnbc.com5,000 cases of bagged salad recalled over E. coli fears
Seeded on Thu Nov 17, 2011 9:13 PM EST (msnbc.com)
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Pretty soon people will be thinking E. Coli is a brand name or purposefully added ingredient!
Every other months, foods sold in America are contaminated either with Salmonella, E Colia, or Listeria. There's salmonella poisoning of turkey and chicken, followed by E Coli poisoning of beef, spinach, green onions, and salad. Several weeks ago, there was a news story of moldy apple sauce sold to school cafeteria and served to students. While state health inspectors did nothing to stop the outrageous practice, the FDA response was an impressive letter to the food producer. Meanwhile, the same food producer goes on its merry ways.
Once again, Big Government regulators are either colluding with their industry, participating in the revolving door, or inept. Whether the fiasco involves the SEC, FTC, FDIC, FDA, FCC, EPA or oil rig safety, in all cases, Big Government regulatory functions amount to post-mortem analysis rather than preventive medicine.
Easy solution:
Do not buy Corporate Food. BUY LOCAL!
Actually it is much like the difference between local banks and credit unions and the Corporate Banks! Big Agra cares only about the bottom line: profits. Public health is...guess what! A governmental function thru regualtions! Why? Because the bottom line of the government is We, The People!
You're just as likely to get sick from local food as you are from "corporate food." There isn't some shadowy figure with a big mustache at the corporate bagging plants sprinkling E. coli all over the greens and laughing an evil laugh. That being said, the ways to prevent this are well known. Grow the food using clean water. Clean your processing equipment. And for you the consumer: wash your produce. Pre-bagged salads discourage you from washing your food. It might just be worth it to just buy the ingredients fresh, wash them yourself, and prepare your own salad.
I would not eat a salad prepared by most here on Newsvine (based on what many have posted before about the other previous contaminations, you can see some of that in AnIndividual post, see my response at post #3.1).
Also what I find really amusing, FatCatGets$700Bil posted:
Without going one step further to research what they all have in common.
Are you kidding? The only way to make sure your food is safe is to GROW IT YOURSELF! Even local growers can have contamination problems. I know it's kind of hard to do that in the winter, so I just used canned to reduce the chances of contamination and avoid fresh greens. This is, what, the fifth recall involving leafy greens in the last TWO MONTHS? Sick. Just sick!
Too few health inspectors. If the Republicans have their way, there will be fewer still. This is what smaller government means.
Food, Inc., would you PLEASE stop locating your produce farms downhill/downstream from dairy/cattle operations?
E.coli is produced in the gut of cows. It should never end up in produce unless you're doing something wrong.
.
From an Epidemiological standpoint (and strains of e-coli, Microbiology). Get the Illegal Aliens out of the US Food Chain, especially the Food Processing (Meat Processing and Packing, Vegetable Processing, Fruit Processing, Fruit and Vegetable Harvesting, etc.). As these Illegal Aliens at the US are NOT the most educated (especially personal hygiene).
The same problems (lack of Education, personal hygiene, sterile procedures, etc.) exist at the Nations of South and Central Americas, where the majority of the US Fruits and Vegetables come from ever since the majority of California's Fruit and Vegetable Basket was closed down due to a lack of Irrigation, on going Lawsuit and Court Injunctions to protect the over 20 Endangered Species of Fresh water Fish preventing these Water sources from being used as Irrigation at California.
Once again the solution is what Europe has been successfully using for year, Irradiation of Fruits, Vegetables, Meats and other products. Unlike the US many that work in their Food Chain have Education (Sanitary Practices, Sterile Procedures, etc.) thru Technical Universities, in order to join Trade Unions, Guilds, Associations, Labor Unions, etc. or even to get a License (revoked if you f**k up, as well as legal prosecution) in those areas. Their Business Licenses are proof they know what they are doing, not just for Tax Purposes (example at England would be "By Appointment of the King or Queen")).
david,
Doesn't matter who picks it if the facility is dirty or the water is dirty. Dirty water can cause Salmonella species to grow inside the produce as it matures. Using manure as a fertilizer can contaminate the water. The facilities should have FDA approved standard operating procedures for cleanliness. If the facility isn't clean, it is dirty water used for cleaning or the procedures are not being followed. None of that falls on the (il)legal aliens in the fields picking the produce. It shouldn't matter what they do if the produce is washed at the processing facility in clean water using clean equipment.
U.S.1776, is that a nice way of stating, "@!$%# rolls downhill"?
You assume irradiation is safe. It probably just destroys any nutritional value the food may have. I prefer to just grow my own.
Ummm UnitedStates1776 e-coli contamination, it's called fertilizer...
And yes Catsclaw81 I agree growing your own and canning is the healthiest way to go. I rarely use canned foods since cans are lined with BPA. I have had a garden and buy local now for the last several years. Just need to read up on canning next.
Here it is...another story about E. coli and `bagged' salad....5,000 cases? Who buys this $hit anymore anyway?
Stephen-3644940,
Where do you think most of the Restaurants, Fast Food places, etc. get their stuff from (except in bigger containers and bags).
And the Local Farmers and Producers must worry even more about their meager profits, just so that they can plant next years crop. Clearly you never worked on a Family Farm.
How many times a year are Local Farms and Producers inspected.
The ONLY way that you can even get close to insuring you don't get something that was SH!T on (human feces also a source of e-coli, usually the pathogenic type), is to grow things yourself without using manufactured fertizliers (some are from sludge ponds (recycled human waste) "Undercover Boss" Episode).
Who buys bagged pre-washed salad? Everyone but you?
People are still eating bagged salads, eh
Breeding ground for microbes in a closed environment
I know! It's so gross. It compares to the inside of your mouth in alot of ways.
I wonder, does GOLDEN CORRAL IN COLORADO USE READY PAC. We ate there last Monday night salad only & got VERY SICK! It's seems like it's almost to the point where if you didn't grow it yourself, it is not safe to eat.
I wouldn't eat in a Golden Corral if you paid me...a herd of obese people waddling around slopping mass produced over processed food on their plate then shoving it down their throats....ugh....such a disgusting place. I would not be surprised at all something you ate from there made you sick.
Never put anything in your mouth that hasn't been thoroughly cooked first. Baked, stewed, Pasteurized, boiled, or fried, make sure your food has been heated to 165 degrees before serving. Nothing raw should ever be allowed at your table. That will eliminate food borne illness.
JohnCarter-428979,
Ever seen what happens to lettuce subjected to 165 degrees for at least 10 minutes (time required to kill most "Germs"), can you say lettuce soup or burnt food.
The only viable solution as used at Europe for years is Irradiation.
Irradiation is expensive and kills the taste. I happen to agree with JohnCarter. Cooking your food is the best way. There are plenty of ways to enjoy vegetables outside of a salad. Ask a vegetarian, most of them hate salads.
Taste seemed fine to me while living at Europe for over 20 years (could not tell the difference from before or later when they started irradiation)(Europe is/has been my US Military Home Station when I return from the Middle East, etc.). Even the French (extremely picky about even the smallest taste variance) use Irradiation, previously the taste arguement against Irradiation was from the Cordon Bleu, and they were proven wrong in a blind taste test.
What kills most of the taste in the US is "Bleach Water" used usually at the Processing Plants after Harvesting. Most of what we get here at the US Military Dining Facilities has been irradiated (during our first year here, most of us got a severe form of Broad Spectrum Anti Biotic Resistant Amoebic Dysentery, even from the over cooked (almost burnt) local vegetables).
The biggest visual difference is that the irradiated fruits and vegetables do not rot for longer periods of time, if you peel off the stickers "This Product has been Irradiated" you cannot tell the difference, that argument of taste is null and void. And as far as taste because the Irradiated Fruits and Vegetables do not rot as quickly they can be picked just before ripe, and have more taste, not less. Additionally, most Fruits and Vegetables at the US are either genetic mutations (thanks to Monsanto) or picked long before they are ripe (that kills the taste) so that they can survive the long transfer (transportation) times to be distributed to warehouses, purchased, then shipped for local sales Nationwide (that would be like the difference between eating a peach harvested late (ripe) at the peach orchard and one at a supermarket (long ago I picked peaches to earn money for a motorcycle during Junior High School).
As far as expensive, initially yes, to set up the facilities. The question is which is more expensive dead people, lawsuits, continually contaminated food chain, increased Health Insurance Costs, etc. or Irradiation.
Take a College Level Course in Microbiology (usually Pre Med School, with a required Microbiology Lab Course attached (put into practice what you learned)) that will change your mind really quickly. Cooking only kills some, not all, the Germs to minimize the amount of Germs you are subject to (enough so that your immune system can get rid of the rest); Irradiation kills all the Germs (including many that cause spoilage). Some of the well known European Cheese Producers use irradiation to stop the fermentation process (bacterial, mould) of their Cheese Products.
Likes and dislikes are not going to stop those that enjoy their Salads (Raw Vegetables and or Raw Fruits) from eating them short of you passing US Laws and Enforcing the US Laws to stop them from eating Salads, getting sick, and increasing the cost of Health Care Insurance for everyone else. So that is not a solution. LOL. Prisoner for Murder "What are you in for", New Prisoner "I ate a Raw Vegetable Salad".
david,
Taste will always be subjective. I'm basing my experience on irradiated dairy. If it does taste the same, some folks will claim it doesn't taste as good because of that irradiated label. Others will claim the nutrients are being destroyed (such as in the Raw Milk movement) which I know to be bull.
Point taken, but you won't get food processors to do it without mandating it. The FDA simply doesn't have a lot of teeth when it comes to regulating food. Lawsuits, recalls, etc are figured into the bottom line calculus. If you make it more expensive to release harmful food, irradiation will become a no-brainer.
I am a microbiologist. 165 degrees F is enough to kill the most common pathogens. In my memory, none of the exotic pathogens have been the subject of any of these notices or recalls. Other bugs that can survive 165 degrees F tend to be too fastidious to be pathogenic.
And I would strongly advocate not killing absolutely everything. The gut consists of a flora of harmless bacteria. They are populated and sustained by the food you eat. These harmless bacteria are usually Clostridium species, Bifdobacterium species, Candida yeast species, and Lactobacilli species to a lesser extent. They not only help us digest the food we eat, they provide competition for pathogens. A single pathogen cell won't be able to get enough resources to grow quickly and cause disease before it can be eliminated. Irradiation will remove all germs so that any pathogen introduced after the fact will have a much greater chance of growing and causing disease. While irradiation won't destroy your gut flora, it will deprive your body of a key disease fighting element.
No, but people who eat salads for the sake of being healthy may find there are many alternatives. You may have noticed on restaurant menus that they caution you that eating raw or undercooked meat, fish, and eggs can increase your risk of food bourn illness. Well we may see that appended to include vegetables and fruits. That's the extent of my advocacy. I strongly believe you should be able to eat what you want. But if you eat raw things, you ought to be responsible for what happens to you.
Most vegetarians hate salads? I'm a practicing bulimic, I just don't vomit after I binge.
Sirlafalot,
A salad is just one way of eating vegetables. There's pizzas, pastas, casseroles, sandwiches, soups, omelets, enchiladas, Indian food (most of it!), or just the vegetable itself sauteed, slow cooked, roasted, baked, fried, or boiled (doesn't work with all vegetables). And that is by far a non-exhaustive list. Take note this thanksgiving in what form you are eating your vegetables. Vegetarians do it the same way without the meat.
Okay, pragmatic, if you are a microbiologist, then answer one question. Seriously. We heard from one news outlet that you can use hydrogen peroxide to clean fresh veggies, that it will kill the bugs. Is that true? And I think the taste question is more an issue of when it was picked. Everything in the US is shipped so far, it doesn't have a chance to vine-ripen, and therefore it tastes flat. Yet ANOTHER reason to grow your own!
That will kill all bugs on the surface if it is a concentration of about 35% or more. The stuff you buy in the drug store is about 0.05% to 3%. It becomes dangerous stuff above 10%. And that won't kill anything inside the vegetable. For common pathogens such as E. coli, Salmonella species, and Listeria species, the drug store hydrogen peroxide is about as good as cooking your food to 165 degrees F. But it requires an extended soak, not just a quick wash, around 30 minutes or so. I've also heard that unless you buy food grade hydrogen peroxide, there may be hazardous stuff dissolved in it. Drug store stuff is NOT food grade, so it would require thorough washing after a soak.
All in all, I don't think it sounds like a good idea.
For God's sake, , why do people like to eat slimy vegtables? Fresh(supposedly) vegtables packed in plastic --petrie dish anyone?
Vacuum packed Russian Roulette.
Salad recalled for ecoli..again, contaminated lettuce, contaminated cantelopes, contaminated tomatoes.........eating healthy can kill you.
EAT BEEF!! :)
What we need is a lot less regulations over our food supply...the private markets will self police themselves...really
Always wash bagged salad!!!!
The more food is handled that greater chance of contamination. Ground meat gets recalled, steaks and roasts do not. Bagged produce gets recalled more often than whole produce.
If we as consumers were not so lazy we would be safer preparing our own food. We would also save a lot of money and a lot less packaging would be used too.
Ehh...careful throwing around "lazy"...I buy bagged salad for convenience. Do you get up to change the channel on your TV or do you use the remote?
Funny how you almost never heard of these kinds of problems until the 1990s. Also I remember when I worked in a restaurant back in the 1980s, we prepared our own salads daily from fresh produce, but then pre-prep bagged salads like we have today weren't available.
Recalled on its expiration date????
I used to buy bagged salad, but it didn't last, so I started buying the fixings and making my own. It seems to be fresher in the long run.
Can't they test for E. Coli before the salad is bagged, put on the supermarket shelves, and sickens people who consume it?
Why don't these important reports list the CHAINS SOLD TO?? Everybody remembers WHERE they bought from, not exactly WHAT they bought. Surely they can explode the tracibility data to that level, and create a short list of stores & their cities from that.
Only Ron Glisson commented on the fact that the bagged vegetables were recalled just at the expiration date. This would seem to be grounds for prosecution.
E. Coli in our veggies? Ive never seen a port-a-potty in the fields for the workers to use. Where do the farm workers use the bathroom while they are in the fields for hours a day and where do they wash their hands? Also, could the wild/feral hog problem that is nationwide have anything to do with E. Coli in our veggies? Just food for thought.
Sounds like our nations farmers should just start selling bags of e-coli laced with vegetables; you get what you pay for... Go ahead, hire more "illegal immigrants".
What is wrong with America - can't we produce safe foods anymore? The food industry is broken; the FDA & govt. inspecting agencies are a complete failure, and processors are so only worried about cutting cost for that almighty dollar, they take short-cuts and fail to follow safe food handling practices.
We are just getting over the worse case of killing consumer with tainted cantalopes, then it was moldy applesauce, last week - peanut butter re-calls, now salad. Have you seen or heard of any changes in the food industry as a result of these last incidents, have you seen or heard of agencies fireing people for not doing their jobs or a re-organization to fix the problem? Heck no. You just try not doing your job or doing it half a$$ and see how long you last.
Another case of waiting till they're eaten before doing a recall. Pretty sick.