Re-Washing Lettuce At Home A Risk

If you are considering re-washing pre-packed lettuce at home to avoid salmonella poison, just don’t risk it. An industry source has put out a warning that re-washing pre-packed lettuce could in fact increase your exposure levels to salmonella and leave you feeling very sick indeed.

Speaking in an interview with the ABC in a recent interview, Richard Bennett, from Fresh Produce Marketing Australia New Zealand, said that washing our lettuce at home exposes it to harmful bacteria and vast cross contamination in the kitchen.

“By washing them ourselves, we actually expose something like leafy vegetables to contamination in our kitchen — from the bacteria in our sinks or cutting boards or from raw meat,” he said.

Richard said that it was impossible to use household kitchens to replicate the thorough cleaning processes conducted in packaging facilities.

“In the packing facility, where the fresh cuts are washed, sanitised and packaged, they go through an agitation rinse and a number of other washes to remove debris and pathogens, and I don’t believe, in the kitchen, we can do any better than that,” he said. “Our sophisticated supply chain, temperature management, and the gas that’s inside packages are designed to reduce to opportunity for contaminants to prosper. “

Richard’s advice comes on the back of the recent outbreak of salmonella poisoning in Victoria, where fifty-four people have been diagnosed with suffering from the strain of bacteria after eating pre-packaged leafy greens. Eight people in Queensland have also been diagnosed with the poisoning.

Tripod Farmers has been linked to the outbreak, and the company has now withdrawn 30 products from supermarket shelves and investigating the source of the salmonella bacteria in their facility.

There are currently recalls on products from Tripod Farmers in place from:

Coles and Bi-Lo supermarkets in Victoria, New South Wales, South Australia, Northern Territory and the ACT
Woolworths in the ACT, Victoria and NSW
Other trade outlets in NSW, Queensland, Victoria, South Australia, Northern Territory and the ACT
No salad products recalled in Tasmania, Western Australia

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18 Comments

- - Mummytoabeautifulprincess said
  - 31 Mar 2016
    10:58 pm
How does that explain the frogs and spiders and whatever else has been found INSIDE the packaging of these products?!!!

- - mom71670 said
  - 07 Mar 2016
    8:07 pm
I’m still waiting to find out what the original problem was, makes me worried about eating greens these days.

- - mom71820 said
  - 24 Feb 2016
    12:48 pm
still makes u a little nervous, but thanks for the info.

- - coastalkaryn said
  - 12 Feb 2016
    1:40 pm
oh great another thing to worry about!
- mom94125 replied
  
  28 Feb 2016 , 2:50 pm
  lol but i agree. you just can’t “win” hey! an experts are always contradicting each other…
- - meedee said
  - 06 Feb 2016
    11:31 pm
It will be interesting to hear what has caused this outbreak. Why was the lettuce infected?
Was it the cleaning process? Was it something in the soil? Were the crops watered with recycled water that carried a bacteria?
Hope they inform us of the outcome.

- - curlytops said
  - 06 Feb 2016
    10:17 pm
Terrible thing to happen and from lettuce! I hope all the sick people are ok.

- - mom160421 said
  - 06 Feb 2016
    9:24 pm
Whether fresh or pre-packaged, I always wash all my greens and veges before eating them and have never been sick. I do agree with MoM165081 that this sounds like scare tactics, or he thinks most people don’t know how to wash their greens safely.

- - BellaB said
  - 06 Feb 2016
    5:22 pm
I can’t imagine why you’d take the chance.

- - aprilb1 said
  - 06 Feb 2016
    3:45 pm
Yucky the taste foul anyway even with dressing. Lol i prefer using iceberg lettuce that i cut up myself with tomato and cucumber

- - mom165081 said
  - 06 Feb 2016
    3:15 pm
I was pretty amazed to read this. Sounds a little like scare tactics from the industry to me.
- june11 replied
  
  07 Feb 2016 , 10:26 pm
  The industry isn’t going to do that and risk losing their business and livelihood.
  WA and Tas probably produce their own locally.They would have different quality water too.
- - mom90758 said
  - 06 Feb 2016
    2:10 pm
But in this case, weren’t people supposed to bring the bags back to the supermarkets and get a refund? Why just throwing it away?

- - Nas01 said
  - 06 Feb 2016
    12:20 pm
We throw out ours and mum returned hers. It’s jut worth risking it.

- - mom74640 said
  - 06 Feb 2016
    10:52 am
Lke hd

- - mum4107 said
  - 06 Feb 2016
    10:38 am
It didn’t even occur to me to wash it. It went straight in the bin

- - serotonin said
  - 06 Feb 2016
    10:17 am
I actually had no idea you could get salmonella poisoning from prewashed lettuce. I do buy it but don’t rewash it.

- - mom105503 said
  - 06 Feb 2016
    10:16 am
Very scary stuff, I often re-wash my salad mix if I buy a bag although I am more inclined to grab this from our amazing greengrocer.