Leafy greens main culprit in food poisoning, U.S. study finds leafy greens such as lettuce and spinach as the leading source of food poisoning. Each year roughly one in six Americans — or 48 million people — gets sick from food poisoning. That includes 128,000 hospitalization and 3,000 deaths, according to previous CDC estimates.
About one in five illnesses were linked to leafy green vegetables — more than any other type of food. And nearly half of all food poisonings were attributed to produce in general, when illnesses from other fruits and vegetables were added in.
One in 20 supermarket salads could contain E.coli strain O157. The strain of E.coli found can cause severe gastroenteritis.
E.coli O157 and it is highly toxic to humans. When this strain enters the gut, it causes severe gastroenteritis.
Six per cent of people go on to develop a life-threatening kidney failure called haemolytic uraemic syndrome. Infections such as E.coli O157 are transmitted to humans by eating contaminated foods. For salad to be affected, it must have been contaminated directly by waste.
Iceberg lettuces are often grown in soil-free environments, but even this is no protection. The risk is from water used for irrigation, for example.
Listeria is possible from meat and salmonella is usually picked up from eating contaminated raw meat, eggs or dairy produce.
The reason that these outbreaks make headlines is that thankfully they are not common. There are only about 200 cases a year of listeria in the UK.
When you look at figures over the past few years for food poisoning, rates of certain illnesses such as salmonella have steadily reduced, while O157 has increased. This is more to do with farming processes and contamination than our own immunity to these diseases.
Uncooked rice can contain spores of Bacillus cereus, a bacterium that can cause food poisoning. When the rice is cooked, the spores can survive. If the rice is left standing at room temperature, the spores can grow into bacteria.
Lettuce and other leafy greens have been common facilitators of E. coli O157:H7 in recent years. One of the largest outbreaks of E. coli O157:H7 was associated with fresh spinach in 2006. Almost 200 people in 26 states were sickened, 31 developed HUS, and three people died
CHICKEN often gets the blame when you fall victim to food poisoning, but it's likely it was the salad in your meal that actually made you sick.
Lorraine Belanger, spokeswoman for Food Standards Australia New Zealand, said a lot of foodborne illness happens in the home. And under the right circumstances anything can give you food poisoning.
"People think of chicken as the number one suspect but actually things like salads and cut fruit, if handled in wrong way or exposed to wrong things, can cause major foodborne outbreaks."
Many foodborne illnesses take days or weeks to manifest.
"When people get sick they think 'Oh it was that thing I ate at lunch' but it could be something they ate a week ago," Ms Belanger said.
Juliana Madden, executive officer at the Food Safety Information Council, says vegetarians and vegans often think they're more protected from food poisoning but this is not the case.
"Some of the largest food safety issues that have popped up in the last few years have been things like baby spinach and tomatoes," Ms Madden said.
Rice can be infected with Bacillus cereus, which is present as spores and can survive easily in dry conditions such as a packet.
"People cook the rice which then activates the spores. So if you don't put [cooked rice] in the fridge you almost create a perfect environment for food poisoning," Ms Madden said.
Cooking rice doesn't kill the spores and warm, moist rice is a great place for bacteria to grow. So if you have leftover rice you should put it in the fridge it as soon as possible, and don't keep it longer than three days.
Raw vegetables
Lettuce and tomatoes carry the risk of salmonella and E. coli - which can cause vomiting, diarrhoea and stomach cramps.
Lettuce, celery or anything that grows on the ground can have E. coli present because it's in the soil.
Tomatoes and other vegetables can get contaminated when hand packed by unclean hands.
To avoid illness, wash vegetables well and make sure you use clean boards and clean knives.
Fruits
Listeria can grow on the skin of rockmelons which are grown on the ground. When people touch the skin and also the melon flesh when cutting up their fruit this can lead to cross contamination.
Sprouts
Sprouts can be contaminated with bacteria such as E. coli, listeria, and salmonella.
To produce sprouts, seeds are soaked then kept moist for several days while they sprout. The conditions for sprouting a seed are ideal for bacteria growth. So if the seeds are contaminated with bacteria, the numbers may be very high in the sprout.
Cooking sprouts largely decreases the bacteria risk.
Chicken, duck and turkey
These birds risk can carry salmonella and campylobacter. The good news is the risk from bacteria is completely eliminated if the meat is cooked through properly.
But if you wash your meat you can easily splash salmonella onto vegetables or other items that won't be cooked, so they become cross-contaminated.
Eggs
Eggs can also carry nasty salmonella, which causes diarrhoea and vomiting.
Cooking eggs thoroughly kills bacteria, but be careful to thoroughly clean utensils and wipe down bench tops if they come into contact with raw egg.
