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photo credit: madame.furie

Salmonella and other food-borne illnesses appear to be on the increase. According to the US food and drug administration there have been a number of outbreaks of illness associated with raw produce contamination since 1990.

The reason seems to be that in most countries the trend is now to import more produce than before. One probable reason seems to be that much of the produce is grown in fields in which water used on the plants has been contaminated with animal waste. What this means is that the contaminant then gets into the plant itself and cannot easily be washed off.

Unfortunately with the volumes of produce that we are dealing with cross contamination can easily occur during packing especially when produce from one area may be stored, or even mixed with similar produce that has been unknowingly infected.

This illustrates the prudence of washing carefully with plain water for about 20 seconds any raw produce you buy from your supermarket. Even vegetables that have been prepacked and say they have been washed should be treated with caution and washed again.

One thing you should never do however is wash raw vegetables with soapy water. All this will do is will do is give you diarrhoea, (from the soap). Use a vegetable brush or a colander, but don’t overload it.

Be cautious with your produce. If it doesn’t look good, chuck it out instead. Of course, unused produce should be refrigerated within two hours just like any other food in your kitchen.

In the US alone since 1990 there has been at least 12 outbreaks of salmonella associated with tomatoes. Most recently several days ago at least 700 people nationwide in America have been made ill by tomatoes contaminated with salmonella, and this has caused problems for the food authorities to try and track down the source of the outbreak.

Unfortunately in real terms because a lot of people don’t report their illness, perhaps as many as 9000 people may actually be affected in this current outbreak. In this particular outbreak the US food and drug administration is recommending that people do not eat certain raw red round tomatoes, unless the tomatoes were from safe sources listed on the FDA’s website.

This case to seems to be not simply one of surface contamination. The FDA is advising consumers not to cook these tomatoes because cooking may not ensure that the Salmonella is eliminated.

It seems to me that two things are needed. Firstly most countries should try and put in place some sort of safe source of food database if not already in place for tracking raw produce similar to meat, and secondly that consumers in those countries be made more aware of the risks of consuming unwashed vegetables.

Markets should also in my opinion be scrutinised to ensure that countries, or growers with a poor record of cleanliness should be become more widely known.

Tags: salmonella, raw produce, produce contamination, food borne illnesses



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