Raw sprouts: food safety types won’t eat ‘em

A woman from a U.S. magazine interviewed me this morning about the risks of raw sprouts.

I was sorta nervous because I’ve been out of the media game for a while, but she played to my weaknesses and complimented me by saying I was imminently quotable, so I obliged, even though yesterday I couldn’t remember my phone number (writing allows one to go check things, talking, not so much).

I lost track a couple of times during the interview but she was sympathetic and I would defer by saying, it’s all on the barfblog.com, when I couldn’t remember something.

I did however note that many food service thingies have started using pea sprouts as substitutes for raw alfalfa or mung bean sprouts.

Pea sprouts are not yet widely consumed but I did note, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency launched a recall of pea sprouts because of Listeria contamination back in April, a recall that was expanded in May.

No one has been identified as sick, but I’m sure it will happen.

Here’s a table of over 75 sprout-related outbreaks going back to 1973.