Ashley Chaifetz, a PhD student studying public policy at UNC-Chapel Hill writes,

Kale has become the food that apparently does everything: cancer protection, lower cholesterol, provides antioxidant vitamins A, C, and K and minerals iron and potassium, and in the improvement of eye health. Repeatedly called a “superfood” (a quick Google search will reveal over a million hits), kale is often consumed cooked, much like collard, mustard, and turnip greens.

Yet, I’ve been regularly seeing it served raw—in restaurant dishes, recipes in cooking magazines, in friends’ homes, and even in bagged salads at the grocery store.  While it is delicious, I think a lot about how it was grown, processed, and packaged. Microbial food safety might not be number one for kale producers as they might reason that consumers and restaurants traditionally cook the greens and reducing pathogen risk in the process. The control point, historically was in the kitchen.

A couple of years ago, I’d think that raw kale was an anomaly, but given it’s popularity (see: 50 Shades of Kale cookbook, the fact that kale has had a 400% increase in menu appearances over the last 4 years, and even celebrities love it), it seems poised to stick around.

Now that there’s been such a shift to raw consumption, I trust that the industry has addressed the production, harvesting and packing related risks. As a shopper and eater, trust is about all I have since no one is talking about whether growers have taken the appropriate precautions so that it won’t make me sick.