<p>Just came across this article on another blog I frequent. Now we have to wash bagged salads, apparently. </p>
<p>[Bagged</a> salad: how clean are packaged salads?](<a href=“http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/magazine-archive/2010/march/recalls-and-safety-alerts/bagged-salad/index.htm]Bagged”>Consumer Reports Magazine 2023)</p>
<p>Wow! This was a testing by Consumer Reports. Thanks for posting this. Looks like I’ll be making my own salads from now on, which will save money, too.</p>
<p>My neighbor recently found a lizard in a clamshell package of field greens. She had already eaten from the box prior to finding it. She shipped it back to the company at their request but has not heard any more from them.</p>
<p>Lizard, OMG! </p>
<p>I rarely buy bagged salad and always wash it if I do. “Prewashed” brings to mind greens swirling in a huge unsanitized industrial tub fed by a garden hose. Technically it may be washed, but not washed and picked over the way I’d do it at home. I don’t eat salad at the homes of people who shake the greens directly from the bag to the serving bowl if I know that’s how they roll, i.e., my sister and mother.</p>
<p>After having bought an expensive clamshell container of spinach leaves and having to sort through and throw out half, I’ve decided not to buy prepacked lettuce and spinach. However, I have found that packaged hydroponic lettuce with the roots still attached seems to be very clean (but I rinse it anyway).</p>
<p>Lizard!!!</p>
<p>This reminds me of the time I was at a restaurant with friends and one of them found a bug deep in her Greek salad. She freaked and when she complained to the waitress, the waitress said, “But you’ve almost finished it.” Like, she had found it and then chose to ear around it until she’d gotten her fill. Blech.</p>
<p>I find bagged mesclun convenient but I always wash vegetables even when they are labeled as “triple washed.”</p>
<p>They’ve been warning about bagged salad for a while-- I guess its anon and off problem.</p>
<p>Many yrs ago we took the kids to Stake and Shake ofr a milkshake. A VERY LARGE piece of the milkshake machine (like 6" long) was in younger s’s milkshake. How could they miss that ?!</p>
<p>Seriously, if I found a lizard in my salad, I would be off salads, pretty much forever. ;)</p>
<p>Yikes.</p>
<p>I wash everything veggie even if the package says “triple washed”. Triplewashed? Triple hog wash, I think! :)</p>
<p>I would not freak out if I found a bug or a fly in my salad bag. However, some lizards have poisonous mucus covering them to deter the predators from eating them, and I would not be happy to find a lizard in my mixed baby greens! Additionally, reptilians are known salmonella carriers.</p>
<p>I always wash all vegetables, including “pre-washed” salad greens, very carefully by immersing in a vegetable wash solution, scrubbing if they are sturdy vegetables, and rinsing each leaf of greens separately. I also rinse eggs before using.</p>
<p>Hmm…the only bagged salads I buy are from Trader Joes (when I can’t get to Wegmans). The kind with the full heads of organic romaine - packed three to a bag. Always wash it. I think it’s OK. I don’t like the taste of the bagged leaves…something about them.
Now, I used to be a HUGE fan of bagged baby spinach leaves. Ate them almost every day, raw and cooked. Until that awful salmonella incident…when I found they were washed with water bathed in feces. Yuk. Never again.</p>
<p>EEEW! Now, while we can control who we prep our salads at home, we also have to wonder about restaurants. Many of them use bagged greens!</p>
<p>I’m not trying to be difficult, I’m really not. Just trying to understand.</p>
<p>Why, exactly, do we need to wash fruits and vegetables? If it’s to remove dirt, then I can almost understand. Although the amount I’ve seen is minimal to say the least and my kids have eaten more playing outside.</p>
<p>If it’s to remove germs, then rinsing with water won’t help. Are we saying we should scrub with soap and water for minutes like we are told to do with our hands? Which in fact, I do. Washing is not going to remove salmonella.</p>
<p>If we had washed the lettuce with the lizard, would that have helped? We’d either have a clean lizard, or would have thrown it all out anyway.</p>
<p>^I wash fruits and vegetables for germs and pesticides. Warm water I largely what kills germs in the washing process. I scrub the fruits and vegetables and wipe them dry to better remove germs. There are vegetable and fruit washes that are much like soap but I don’t like adding even more chemicals to my food. Warm water kills the germs and the towel help to physically take them off.</p>
<p>NYMomof2, I also rinse eggs before I crack them open. Because they come out of chickens, which are – icky. Yeah, I eat chickens, but only after they’re cooked. </p>
<p>I guess it makes no sense for me to rinse eggs but not bagged salad. I guess I’ll be washing my salad from now on.</p>
<p>Toneranger, you said you don’t like the taste of the bagged greens. I think there’s a bit of chlorine smell to them, which I assume is used as a disinfectant.</p>
<p>Edit: And how do you dry the damn salad after you’ve washed it – those salad spinner things? Laying it all out on paper towels?</p>
<p>Just another Devil’s Advocate question, but what do you wipe the veggies and fruits down with? A paper towel? </p>
<p>Isn’t anyone concerned with Dioxin, anymore? ;)</p>
<p>Here’s an intersting article, from NPR, on the subject. They even recommend washing bananas.</p>
<p>[Lettuce</a> Learn How to Wash Produce : NPR](<a href=“http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6104414]Lettuce”>Lettuce Learn How to Wash Produce : NPR)</p>
<p>I wash melons and watermelons before I cut them up. I never buy a pre-cut melon because I know they are not washed prior to cutting.</p>
<p>I wipe them down with either a clean dish towel or paper towels.</p>