With all of the Food and Drug Administration's recent "haphazard" firings of employees—including food scientists who test samples for harmful bacteria and more, as well as the FDA's lack of open communication about recent food-borne illness outbreaks and slashing of research and safety testing programs, I've been thinking hard about my food buying and eating habits. I've been contemplating how I can best minimize my risk of encountering tainted food, and recently came to the conclusion that it might not be a bad idea to cut out pre-washed, pre-cut, pre-bagged lettuces and greens from my diet, out of an abundance of caution.
Now, after reading this new piece in The Atlantic, "Now Is Not the Time to Eat Bagged Lettuce," I'm even more convinced that I've made the correct decisions. The article by Nicholas Florko, whose subtitle reads, "Food safety in America is under attack," lays out a great argument for avoiding bagged salad greens—and especially romaine lettuce, which, in food safety terms, has a particularly bad track record—as we in the United States navigate a food safety system that has been historically "woefully neglected" and that has currently been even "further undermined" by the Trump administration.
Florko begins the piece by laying out some pretty horrific stats about E. coli outbreaks linked to romaine lettuce in the last decade—in 2018 alone, E. coli-tainted romaine killed five people and caused 27 more people to experience kidney failure, and in 2024 E. coli from romaine sent 36 people across 15 states to the hospital. Florko then explains that, because of how heads of lettuce are processed before being bagged, chopped, pre-washed, ready to eat romaine is riskier than whole heads of lettuce. Lettuce heads get sent through a kind of "wood chipper" machine, where one contaminated head of lettuce can get chopped up, stick to the equipment, and then contaminate many other heads that come after. And dozens of pieces from one contaminated head can end up in any number of bags. The analogy given in this quote by food-safety lawyer Bill Marler is perfect (and made me cringe): "Buying a head of romaine lettuce is like taking a bath with your significant other; buying a bag of romaine lettuce is like swimming in a swimming pool in Las Vegas."
If those bags contain shredded lettuce instead of chopped lettuce, well, that's even worse. Florko cites one research study that tested the growth of E. coli on intentionally-infected lettuce—it found that chopped lettuce had more than twice the amount of E. coli than uncut lettuce, and shredded lettuce had eleven times the amount! This research shows that keeping lettuce heads intact helps protect them from bacterial growth. Florko also explains that washing lettuce can't get rid of all of the E. coli—only cooking it can do that, and of course nobody cooks salad.
I know that many people eat pre-packaged foods not just for convenience but also out of necessity, because it's difficult for them to chop and prepare foods, for a variety of reasons. In that case, if you want to keep eating lettuces, it seems that chopped—rather than shredded—is the safer choice. If you can chop and prepare full heads of lettuce, that's probably the safest bet, with the caveat, of course, that nothing can completely eliminate risk.
Reducing risk however you can is definitely worth it, though, as Florko predicts that "a leafy-green outbreak is almost guaranteed to occur in the coming months," as outbreaks seem to happen each fall.
Florko concludes: "The system faces so many stressors, food-safety experts told me, that regulators may miss cases of foodborne illness, giving Americans a false sense of security. If there's one thing you can do right now to help protect yourself, it's this: swearing off bagged, prechopped lettuce." Done!
Read the full article here, and be safe out there, folks.
Previously:
• CDC: don't eat romaine lettuce
• Walmart blockchains lettuce
• Two cats relax in a garden with lettuce on their heads
• Tortoise enjoys 5 star meal of tiny fall-leaf-shaped lettuce peices
• Lettuce in the sky, with diamonds
