While the fresh salad you consume everyday is nutritious and filling, it also contains certain elements that will create health problems for you.
Generally, it is thought that a badly cooked steak is responsible for food poisoning cases. But according to CNN Money's recent series Raw Ingredients, about half of 48 million illnesses in the US per year is caused due to contamination of sfresh produce.
During widespread food poisoning outbreaks, it has been found that the produce has been contaminated in the fields through contact with animal or human feces. However, contamination can occur at any stage of handling and marketing as well.
Thus, in order to make it safe, "triple washing" or washing the product multiple times before consumption is a practical approach.
Unlike other food products, fresh produce is not always cooked or microwaved (the two best ways to kill bacteria), which makes it more harmful if not taken care of.
Additionally, since approximately 50% of fresh fruits and 20% of fresh vegetables are imported from foreign countries where the standard food safety practices are different, makes the process of food safety and contamination prevention a challenging task.
The Food Safety Modernization Act, which was passed in 2011, has helped to introduce some effective preventative food safety measures, especially related to foreign suppliers. However, it is believed by many that FDA lacks the proper resources to effectively enforce the safety measures.
According to Dr. Mansour Samadpour, chief executive of IEH laboratories and food safety expert, the FDA requires a "minimum [of] 10 times more resources" than its present ones to ensure that the job is done correctly and without any compromise.
The fact that uncooked fresh produce are some of the most likely foods to make people ill has made the recent Chipole E. Coli outbreak hard for people to digest.
Although Chipole is rolling out new safety measures, the food is prepared from mostly fresh produce and uncooked, increasing the chances of food poisoning. But what happened to Chipotle is not surprising at all, given the fact that it is more risky to serve and eat fresh than finishing a large order of french fries from your favorite fast food chain - in terms of food poisoning, of course.
