{"id":350756,"date":"2010-02-22T18:05:20","date_gmt":"2010-02-22T23:05:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/green.yahoo.com\/blog\/the_conscious_consumer\/124\/how-clean-are-bagged-salads.html"},"modified":"2010-02-22T18:05:20","modified_gmt":"2010-02-22T23:05:20","slug":"how-clean-are-bagged-salads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/350756","title":{"rendered":"How clean are bagged salads?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\"image
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(Photo: Getty Images)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Packaged salads are not nearly as clean as their
\n“pre-washed” and “triple-washed” labels suggest. <\/p>\n

Recent Consumer
\nReports’ tests found bacteria<\/a> that are “common indicators of poor
\nsanitation and fecal contamination” in many
\nof the packaged salad greens<\/a> it tested. <\/p>\n

The nonprofit group tested 208
\ncontainers of salad greens and found that 39 percent of the samples exceeded acceptable
\nlevels for coliforms<\/a>
\nand 23 percent had unsafe levels of enterococcus<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

On a positive note, these tests didn’t find disease-causing bacteria such as E.coli O157:H7, listeria, or salmonella in any of the
\nsamples. <\/p>\n

“It’s never a good idea to have fecal bacteria in your food
\nor water because it means that untreated waste has gotten into them somehow,” says
\nfood
\nsafety expert Marion Nestle<\/a>. “But only toxic bacteria make you sick, and the
\ngood news in this otherwise queasy-making study is that they didn’t find any.”<\/p>\n

No one is suggesting that you stop eating salad. Just take some
\nof the precautions below to make sure you’re eating the safest greens possible:<\/p>\n