Does Washing Your Lettuce Truly Make It Safer to Eat?

Lettuce, spinach, and bagged salads could also be nutritious, however they’re not all the time as protected as you would possibly suppose. Leafy greens are a number one supply of foodborne sickness in the USA, chargeable for an estimated 2 million sicknesses every year, in response to a 2024 research.

With the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention just lately scaling again a key foodborne sickness monitoring program, you could be questioning whether or not completely rinsing leafy greens truly helps stop you from getting sick.

“Leafy greens are sometimes linked to foodborne sickness as a result of they’ll choose up germs at so many levels earlier than they attain your plate,” Jessica Gavin, CFS, CCS, a licensed meals and culinary scientist, informed Well being.

On the farm, elements like contaminated irrigation water, manure used as fertilizer, close by livestock, or wild animals transferring via fields can introduce micro organism like E. coli and Salmonella. (Spinach and lettuce are particularly susceptible as a result of they develop so near the soil, she mentioned.)

“The bigger the sector is, the much less probably it’s that it’s being monitored carefully,” mentioned Bryan Quoc Le, PhD, a meals scientist and writer of 150 Meals Science Questions Answered. Specialty greens, like arugula, are extra typically grown on smaller business fields, “that means employees could have a greater deal with of what’s occurring there,” he added.

After harvest, further steps like washing, chopping, processing, and packaging can unfold contamination even additional, as extra arms and tools come into contact with the greens.

Analysis means that washing your leafy greens could cut back most pesticide residue. It will probably additionally take away filth, particles, and a few micro organism from the floor, Gavin mentioned.

However a radical rinse can’t eliminate all germs. “The overwhelming majority of pathogens adhere to the surfaces of [greens], and it’s very, very troublesome for water to penetrate this and take away them,” mentioned Quoc Le.

The form of leafy greens additionally would not do it many favors. Microbes like E. coli can “cover in tiny crevices, and even get contained in the plant tissue, the place rinsing received’t attain,” Gavin added.

Pre-washed greens, like these in salad kits, aren’t immune to those points. Not solely can micro organism nonetheless cling to the lettuce, however elevated dealing with and processing can increase the danger of contamination. Listeria is a specific concern as a result of it might survive on processing tools and proceed to develop at fridge temperatures, in response to Gavin.

The one foolproof strategy to absolutely kill micro organism in your greens, per Gavin? Prepare dinner them.

Although rinsing greens can’t eradicate all germs, it might assist take away some—and there are different good causes to offer them a wash.