More Salad Scare

I'm telling you...it's safer to eat Twinkies and Ding Dongs. Consumers Union publishes Consumer Reports.  I respect the work they do in helping consumers make purchasing decisions.  They recently tested 200 fresh-cut salads and found 23% of the samples showed levels of Enterococcus, and 39% showed levels of total coliforms.  May I say something?  All food has bacteria.  Many of you eat bacteria on purpose.  In Yogut.  Cheese.  You drink it in beer.  Not all bacteria is bad bacteria.  Unfortunately, Consumers Union would rather scare you to help build their magazine subscriptions.  The bacteria they found is called "ambient" bacteria and poses no threat to public health or food safety.  In fact, this bacteria is needed so that you can see when the lettuce has spoiled.  The produce industry, especially the fresh-cut salad industry, has done a great job in minimizing pathogens that pose a risk to consumers.  Consumers Union, in the article, also advised consumers to rinse the fresh-cut salads.  Fresh-cut processors have already triple-washed their salads.  You can't do any better.  In fact, chances are, because most consumers have dirty kitchens and utencils, you would actually increase your risk to cross-contamination.  If you really want absolutely no bacteria in your food, there is only one way of doing that...cooking it.  Please don't be scared off with this scare story.  In fact, go to your store, buy an extra bag of salad...and enjoy it tonight.
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