When is it safe to eat romaine again?

[Cairycat]

I was happy to see this today, since I've been wondering, maybe you have too.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/19/well/eat/romaine-lettuce-salad-food-poisoning-e-coli.html

[Hortensis]

1. Not wondering or worrying, but good read anyway, thanks.

It's important to keep these things in perspective. 58 cases in 16 states, none of which I live in, don't worry me. And even if it were in my state, by the time I heard of it it'd be off the shelves.

Now that I think of it, for all the recalls I've heard in the last decade, I also can't remember ever needing to throw away something I'd already purchased. A little surprising, actually.

[Phentex]

2. I've eaten it three times already...

twice from some I got at Publix. They claim they are not affected. And once from Blue Apron and god knows where that came from but we aren't dead yet.

[Saviolo]

3. One of the biggest pitfalls of centralized food production.

When most of the food we eat comes from very few large corporations with partially centralized production (to reduce costs and increase profits, natch), this is the problem we encounter. If one of those centralized processing plants has an outbreak of something, or is contaminated with e.coli, then huge swaths of the country can be affected by the contaminated food. To me, this is the scariest thing about huge corporate factory centralized food production.

Buy local, folks!

[forgotmylogin]

4. Is it possible to make greens safe (from e-coli) by washing them?

I keep a spray bottle of vinegar by the sink so I can clean off produce I'm not sure of...would that help in the case of e-coli, or is it impossible to get it clean? Does the virus invade the structure of the plant?

[hermetic]

5. Evidently not

If these E. coli bacteria were just floating around in a bucket of water, a little bleach or even some vinegar would kill them right away,” Dr. Brackett explains. “But once the bacteria have attached themselves to the surface of a vegetable, they become much harder to kill.

There are really only two reliable ways to kill E. coli in food: irradiation and cooking.

https://www.quickanddirtytips.com/health-fitness/prevention/how-to-kill-e-coli-on-vegetables

Good to know.

[forgotmylogin]

6. Thank you! (n/t)