Tag Archives: Salad

food porn for one

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I take a fair amount of teasing from my girlfriends here in Australia.

“Amy, what’s Doug making for dinner tonight?”

“Stone crab.”

“Poor Amy.”

And last time Doug took a trip away, one of them invited me over a few times because she was rather convinced I don’t know how to cook. It’s not the first time in my life I’ve convinced other people I cannot cook so that they will feed me delicious food. But alas, I can cook. I just gave it up when I met Doug because I was terrified of killing us by cross-contaminating or undercooking our food. And now I’m out of practice.

On one of our first dates, I invited Doug to my house for dinner and a movie. After I get to a certain level of hungry, I can no longer think. And as we weighed options for ordering take out, I hit that point. I finally blurted out, “Let’s go to the grocery store and just buy some steak and salad.” Doug says that’s what won him over.

steakforoneTonight Sorenne-the-Ravenous only wanted to eat a sandwich, but after too many frozen chicken thingies and wondering why Australians don’t say whether the chicken is pre-cooked or raw, I needed some real food. Broiled porterhouse steak cooked to an internal temperature of 150F and left to rest while the temperature rose slightly, rosemary and sea salt chips, English cucumber and 4 leaf salad with cherry tomatoes, balsamic and olive oil. Yum. But a lonely dinner for one.

300 sick; 2012 UK Cryptosporidium outbreak linked to pre-cut salad

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In June 2012, the UK Health Protection Agency first announced 267 people were sick with Cryptosporidium across four areas of the UK, double the normal rate.

Ten months later, HPA says the crypto that sickened about 300 people was most likely linked to eating pre-cut bagged salad products which were likely lettuce.harvestto have been labeled as ‘ready-to-eat.’

The outbreak was short lived and the numbers of cases returned to expected seasonal levels within a month of the first cases being reported. Most of those affected had a mild to moderate form of illness and there were no deaths associated with the outbreak.

During the investigation, the initial link was found between illness and pre-cut spinach. When specific retailers were included in the analysis, the strongest association with infection was found to be with consumption of ready to eat pre-cut mixed salad leaves from a major supermarket chain.

In this analysis, exposure to pre-cut spinach only reached conventional levels of significance for one retailer – a second major supermarket chain. A link to spinach from a number of other retailers was also suggested but these were not statistically significant. Together these findings suggest that one or more types of salad vegetables could have been contaminated.

Dr Stephen Morton, regional director of the HPA’s Yorkshire and the Humber region and head of the multi-agency Outbreak Control Team, said, “Our findings suggest that eating mixed leaf bagged salad was the most likely cause of illness. It is however often difficult to identify the source of lettuce.tomato.skullshort lived outbreaks of this type as by the time that the outbreak can be investigated, the affected food and much of the microbiological evidence may no longer be available.

Dr Alison Gleadle, director of food safety at the FSA, took the opportunity to further confuse consumers, stating, “We’d like to remind everyone of our usual advice to wash all fruits and vegetables, including salad, before you eat them, unless they are labeled ready-to-eat.”

But wasn’t this outbreak linked to ready-to-eat salads? How is that advice of any use? Could have offered some details, like, additional washing of ready-to-eat products is largely ineffective. FSA is refocusing its efforts on farm management to limit such contamination, before it happens.

A spokesthingy for retailer Morrisons said, rather defensively, “Morrisons is not the source of this outbreak. We have received no complaints of illness and no Morrisons products have tested positive for Cryptosporidia.

“The HPA’s claim is based solely on statistics, not testing. The very same statistics also implicated products from other retailers that the HPA recognize as ‘implausible’.”

Why doesn’t Morrison’s say what they do to enhance the safety of products they sell rather than trash epidemiology?

Frog found in bag of Aussie salad

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The Sydney Morning Herald reports that Sydneysider Ben Mulligan has branded Woolworths’ claim that the salad he bought was “washed and ready to eat” as all “LIES!!!” after he says he found an amphibian friend alive in the bottom of the Kermit-the-Frogbag.

Mr Mulligan took photographs of the frog inside the pre-packaged Aussie salad and posted them on the supermarket chain’s Facebook page on Monday night.

“It appears that you forgot to list FROG on the ingredients of your pre-packaged salads, Woolworths,” Mr Mulligan wrote to Woolworths.

“This is disgusting. I ate some of this salad. I could DIE! This poor frog. Wait until PETA hear about this.

“I feel disgusted… disgusted, and still hungry, Woolworths. I bought the salad for me to eat. Not for a FROG to eat. The frog didn’t pay for this salad.”

Within a day of being posted online, the photographs had been shared more than 650 times on Facebook and had attracted nearly 2000 comments.

When contacted, Mr Mulligan said he was discussing the matter with Woolworths and couldn’t comment immediately.

In a statement, a Woolworths spokesperson said the company was investigating the incident.

‘Why have I a soggy fishcake on my plate?’ Tesco customers’ horror as they find dead bird in salad during meal

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It’s happened before it will happen again, but the discovery of a dead bird in a store-bought salad still has a gross factor, regardless of biological realities.

According to the Mail Online, James, 30, and Jasmine Watson, 32, of Yate, Gloucestershire, made the grisly find in a £1.50 bag of the blackcap-bird-songbird-warbler.jpg.492x0_q85_crop-smartsupermarket’s Babyleaf Rocket Salad when they began eating in dimmed light.

The five-inch bird, which Tesco later identified as a Blackcap European warbler, was inside the salad which Mrs Watson had ordered from the supermarket’s website three weeks ago on January 30.

The couple went into their local Tesco Extra store to complain – and a manager visited their home to remove the bird. The supermarket later apologized and offered a £200 gift card as compensation.

Mr Watson said, We had the food delivery a couple of days before and then had gone out for a few drinks on the Friday evening. We came back and were preparing dinner in the kitchen.

“My wife was cooking some scallops and steak and I prepared the salad. I opened the bag, tipped it into a salad bowl and cut up some 6478873W004 TESCO BIRD IN SALAD.jpgother salad bits and put them on top.

“Then I served the salad on some plates. We sat down at the breakfast bar and only had a few low lights on so we were effectively eating by candlelight.

“I took three mouthfuls and then saw it. My first reaction was why have I got a soggy fishcake on my plate? But this was a full-size dead bird.”

A Tesco spokesman said, “We were concerned to learn of this issue and have investigated thoroughly with our supplier. 

“Both we and our suppliers have robust measures in place to prevent incidents such as this, and our salad leaves go through complex filtering and washing systems.

“We have been in contact with our customer to reassure them how seriously we have taken this matter, and offered them a gesture of goodwill.”

But Mr Watson said, “I want to know how it happened. I would really like someone from Tesco to sit down and explain me how an animal so large got into a bag of salad not so large.”

Colorado student arrested for contaminating salad dressing

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It’s like that scene out of Wedding Crashers – using Visine to induce vomiting.

I don’t know if that really works, but a spokesperson with the Colorado Springs Police Department told KOAA a couple of weeks ago a student at Vista Ridge High School had been arrested in connection a possible school lunch contamination incident.

The student admitted to pouring water from a Visine bottle into the ranch dressing at the cafeteria salad bar. He faces charges of Reckless Endangerment and Interference with School, Staff and Faculty.

Around 20 students at Vista Ridge High School felt nauseous following reports that another student had contaminated the ranch dressing at the school cafeteria with a bottle of Visine eye drops.

The school district is notifying all parents of the potential symptoms of Visine consumption which include nausea, vomiting, low blood pressure, low body temperature and possible seizures.

21 sickened; Yersinia enterocolitica outbreak associated with ready-to-eat salad mix, Norway, 2011

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What’s Yersinia doing in salad?

In 2011, an outbreak of illness caused by Yersinia enterocolitica O:9 in Norway was linked to ready-to-eat salad mix, an unusual vehicle for this pathogen.

MacDonald et al report in Emerging Infectious Diseases the outbreak illustrates the need to characterize isolates of this organism, and reinforces the need for international traceback mechanisms for fresh produce. Excerpts below.

Yersiniosis, a notifiable disease in Norway, is the fourth most common cause of acute bacterial enteritis registered by the Norwegian Surveillance System for Communicable Diseases. Approximately 30 domestic cases are reported annually (2010 incidence rate 0.5 cases/100,000 population). In Norway, >98% of cases of Yersinia enterocolitica infection are caused by serotype O:3, which is also the dominant serotype in Europe, Japan, and parts of North America. Infection by Y. enterocolitica is often associated with ingestion of pork because pigs commonly harbor the pathogenic serotypes O:3 and O:9. Recent foodborne outbreaks have been associated with pork products (2,3) and pasteurized milk.

A confirmed case-patient was defined as a person in Norway after January 1, 2011, who had laboratory-confirmed Y. enterocolitica O:9 infection that matched the MLVA profile of the outbreak strain. By May 5, the NRL had registered 21 outbreak case-patients (median age 37 years [range 10–63 years]), of whom 15 were female. Case-patients resided in 10 geographically dispersed municipalities throughout the country. Most case-patients became ill during February 7–March 20.

We traced the suspected salad mix to a single Norwegian company. Under the auspices of the Norwegian Food Safety Authority, we conducted an environmental investigation, including a traceback investigation and a review of production and cleaning procedures at the company. The suspected salad mix contained 4 salad green types: arugula, radicchio rosso, iceberg lettuce, and endive. These ingredients came, unprocessed, from 12 suppliers in 2 European countries. After delivery to the company in Norway, the greens were washed in 2 cold water baths, cut, and packaged. We found no indications of inadequate routines for ingredient control, hygiene, or sampling within Norway. We identified radicchio rosso, a leaf chicory, as the likely source of infection because it can be stored for several months and was the only ingredient included in the suspected salad mix that had delivery, production, and storage dates consistent with the outbreak period. The company in Norway traced the radicchio rosso to 1 of 3 possible growers in 1 European country but was not able to identify the source of contamination. The Norwegian company voluntarily withdrew all salad mixes containing radicchio rosso from the market. After withdrawal of the implicated ingredients, no new outbreak cases were reported.

Did a salad at a German hotel fell Ukraine players at Euro 2012?

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Salad stigma persists in Germany.

A bad salad at a German hotel might have caused the food poisoning that sickened 10 players of European Championship co-host Ukraine before their final warm-up game against Turkey on Tuesday.

Ukraine team doctor Leonid Mironov believes the weakened players suffered from “the bad effects of eating a salad,” the Interfax news agency reported Thursday.

Team spokesman Oleksandr Glyvynskiy told The Associated Press there will be no further investigation into the cause of the food poisoning, despite head coach Oleg Blochin suggesting on Ukrainian TV that “it may have been sabotage.”

Salad greens likely source of salmonella that sickened 136 in UK in 2010

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From July to Oct. 2010, 136 people in London and east England were sickened by Salmonella Java phage type 3b variant 9. Gobin et al., from the U.K. Health Protection Agency, report in Eurosurveillance today that most cases were female with a median age of 39.5 years and lived in London. Results of epidemiological investigations are compatible with salad vegetables as the potential source, but no common suppliers of salad were identified and no organisms were isolated from environmental and food samples.

S. Java is present in poultry flocks in the European Union and is the most common serovar reported in poultry in the Netherlands. Outbreaks of S. Java have been reported in the past, associated with salad vegetables, goat’s milk cheese, poultry, reptiles and tropical fish aquariums. S. Java is an uncommon cause of salmonellosis in the United Kingdom (UK), with 151, 112 and 130 cases reported in 2007, 2008 and 2009 respectively according to the national database.

In 2007, a multi-country outbreak of S. Java phage type (PT) 3b variant 9 (var9) involved cases in Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Norway, the UK and the U.S. Epidemiological evidence suggested an association with salad vegetables.

The results of the case–case study confirmed a significant association between symptomatic infection of S. Java PT 3b var9 and eating out at restaurants, eating pre-packaged mixed salad leaves at home, consumption of salad leaves from takeaway restaurants and eating any salad leaves either at home or purchased from commercial catering settings. Since salad is often used as a garnish in meals eaten in commercial catering settings, it is possible that the model underestimated the proportion of cases who consumed salad leaves away from home.

We cannot exclude the possibility that the study may have missed the right vehicle of the outbreak such as sprouted seeds which have been implicated in two recent outbreaks in Europe. It is likely that the consumption of smaller food items (seeds, sprouted seeds and herbs) in salads prepared by commercial caterers was not remembered or was not noticed by cases. None of the smaller salad items were found to be associated with cases during the hypothesis generation. It is possible that salad leaves were a confounding factor in this investigation and smaller, less memorable items should be considered in outbreaks where salad vegetables appear to be implicated.

Environmental investigations did not identify common suppliers of salad vegetables and the short shelf life of salad vegetables limited the ability to acquire any suspect foods for microbiological analysis.

The contamination of salad leaves and salad vegetables during their production and processing has been implicated in a number of geographically widespread outbreaks. High risk practices during production and processing include the use of contaminated water either to irrigate the crops, to apply pesticides or other dressings, or to wash the crop once harvested; the use of human or animal sewage as a crop fertilizer; and the transport of the harvested crop in a contaminated vehicle/storage system, e.g. trucks previously used for transporting waste. Crops growing in the field are also vulnerable to contamination from sources such as wild animals and birds

Gastrointestinal infection associated with salad vegetables may also be the result of cross-contamination from poultry, meat or meat products or contamination by the food handler during food preparation in the home or in catering establishments. A review of more than 2,000 general foodborne outbreaks from 1992 to 2006 undertaken by the HPA found that 4% of them were associated with prepared salads. The review found that most of the outbreaks linked to salads occurred in the catering sector and were associated with infected food handlers, cross-contamination and poor storage.

The increase in illness and outbreaks associated with the consumption of fresh ready to eat salad vegetables indicates the ongoing need to improve methods in the production and preparation of these foods to reduce the potential for contamination with Salmonella and other enteric pathogens.

The complete epidemiological write-up, with a full discussion of limitations, is available at http://www.eurosurveillance.org/ViewArticle.aspx?ArticleId=20023.

Is head lettuce safer than bagger greens; should those bagger greens be washed once home

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"There is currently no scientific evidence to suggest that bagged salad is any more or less risky then a whole head of lettuce." Cutting any fresh produce creates a risk of bacterial growth.

So says a spokeswoman for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in a Wall Street Journal feature about reviving the prepared salad category; the food safety nuggets are left to the end.

Scientists don’t agree on whether bagged salad has a higher risk of illness than a head of lettuce. Some scientists say it does, because of the possibility that contaminated leaves will spread bacteria to thousands of other leaves during washing and packaging.

For prewashed packaged salads, a second wash at home isn’t recommended for preventing foodborne illness. Addressing the question in 2007, a scientific panel of food-safety experts found the risk of cross-contamination with other foods outweighed any possible benefit from washing packaged salad greens a second time at home.

When washing at home, "there’s a risk that is the sink where you just washed your chicken," says Donald Schaffner, Rutgers University professor of food science.

A table of leafy green related outbreak is available at http://bites.ksu.edu/Outbreaks%20related%20to%20leafy%20greens%201993-2010

Salmonella from salad at Illinois restaurant? Maybe, but source not IDed, 15 sick

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Health types in Illinois continue to investigate the cause of a Salmonella Typhimurium outbreak that appears to be linked to the Portillo’s restaurant in St. Charles.

The number of confirmed cases stands at 15.

An exact cause of the outbreak has not been identified; however the weight of evidence leans toward the ingestion of salad. It is not known how the salad became contaminated.

Eleven of the 15 cases reported eating at Portillo’s, and seven of those reported eating a salad. Two employees have tested positive for Salmonella Typhimurium, but the investigation has identified them as likely victims of the outbreak and not the cause.

Other information about the outbreak includes
• Onset date ranged from April 5 through April 30
• 10 are female, five are male
• Three were hospitalized