Lettuce is the Most Common Food Linked with Food Poisoning. How Can You Lower Your Risk?

cheryl

cheryl

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Lettuce is the Most Common Food Linked with Food Poisoning. How Can You Lower Your Risk? - Cathe

Lettuce is a basic ingredient of a salad and you have so many varieties to choose from! Once you’ve made your selection, add an array of fruits and vegetables, toss them in dressing, and get your five a day in short order. Yet, there’s something about that salad that might surprise you and take your appetite as well. Lettuce is the most common food linked with foodborne illness. In fact, leafy greens have been linked with 22% of the outbreaks of food poisoning in the last ten years.

It hasn’t always been this way. Years ago, leafy greens were involved in far fewer outbreaks of food poisoning. If there is a bright spot with regard to greens and food poisoning, leafy vegetables, including lettuce, aren’t linked with the most deaths due to food poisoning. Poultry holds that distinction. Still, falling ill after eating veggies, even if they don’t die, isn’t something most people want to experience.

Just recently, a national outbreak of food poisoning was traced to romaine lettuce. During the outbreak, about 200 people became ill and 5 died. The source of the outbreak was irrigation water contaminated with bacteria.
 
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