Cotton-Pickin’ Days

I almost posted about this earlier. I actually am extremely irritated at these types of food “scares”. Ok, so 50 people got sick out of how many millions who age bagged spinach (including myself)? What’s the relative risk when you compare that with a lifetime of eating fast food or frozen dinners?

Or, if you want to go further, consider how many people around the water don’t even have access to clean drinking water….

hello, typos.

millions who ATE bagged spinach

people around the WORLD who don’t have access.

river2sea72: Hi there. Didn’t notice the typos.

I’m sure the number of people who’ve been sick is much higher than that. Those reported are the most serious cases of poisoning.

I think the primary purpose of reports like this is to increase awareness and hopefully improve food safety. And although there are other risks in life, food poisoning is not pleasant at all and potentially life threatening to kids and those with compromised immune systems.

As for comparing to people around the world without clean drinking water, I don’t see any reason for us to compare. It is certainly a crime that they don’t have access to clean water but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be vigilant about our own food supply.

So — what would you recommend to someone who wants to continue to eat fresh spinach, one of the most nutritious foods on earth, but doesn’t have time for the triple-washing routine?

river2sea72: Cook it but cook it well. And if that’s what you end up having to do, you lose a lot of the nutrients.

There’s a reason why more adult women are gettingsick; they’re the ones who are eating it as salad. I love spinach salad but I’ll think twice about eating it again because right now, they’re not sure if it’s contamination in the field or in the processing factory.

In any case, each person has to decide what risk they’re willing to accept. There are other alternatives to spinach.

I buy fresh bagged produce, and I buy fresh unbagged produce. I buy melons and carrots and all kinds of stuff. Never have gotten sick, but then again, I use a Veggie Wash natural vegetable cleaner, and wash everything. Something like canteloup gets sprayed and SCRUBBED. Stuff like broccoli or spinach gets sprayed and SOAKED. And then I rinse it all really well.

If you’re concerned you could use a bleach solution, but if you use bleach be absolutely sure to rinse it very very well.

I figure this is just another excuse to eat processed, packaged food that at least I know is bad for me. Right? Right? Okay, maybe not…

this is the perfect reminder of why shopping at your local farmers’ market makes sense!

Deb: Wow,you’re really careful! Suitable for living in a developing country.

Kerri: Don’t you know? Nothing is safe. haha

mipmup: Hi there! Not necessarily. The source of the outbreak could be an organiz produce company. More details in the New York Times.

I think we should just stop eating. Then we’ll be 100% safe from food contamination.

Killer diet. Literally….

river2sea72: I did see a woman on TV whose diet consisted of sun rays. Seriously. She only ate raw food and sunbathed to tame her appetite.

Kerri: So when do we start?

That gives me an idea for a potentially lucrative new biotechnology – splicing chlorophyll-producing DNA into human cells! Then, we could live on sun rays and water alone!

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=topNews&storyid=2006-09-17T024608Z_01_N14336072_RTRUKOC_0_US-ECOLI.xml&src=rss

My husband has been keeping track of the spinach, and passed this on to me.

I guess if you’ve got fresh spinach you could always boil it and have cooked spinach, instead of throwing it away, but with an obvious major contamination issue, if I had spinach in my fridge I’d toss it.

GAH, sorry about the link. I meant to make that a nice short link.

Now what about spinach that is incorporated into frozen dinners?

LM: i’m assuming those will be fine because you’ll be microwaving them to death, right?