Website design By BotEap.comMore than 400 people have become ill from eating salads, food wrappers, and other items containing fresh (uncooked) vegetables at various fast food restaurant chains since May 1, 2018. Others recently became ill after eating prepared salads. or use bagged vegetables as salad ingredients. home of chain food stores. Some people who like to lick the spoon after mixing homemade or prepackaged cookie or cake batter also got sick from flour (now recalled) or eggs (salmonella) in the mix. Why have things like fresh vegetables and flour suddenly become a potential health threat?

Website design By BotEap.comNo one will like the answer, but it is the truth. I have been writing about this for over twenty years. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, many people began to become seriously ill and some died after eating fresh vegetables or prepared foods containing them, such as salads, tacos, wraps, etc. Others got sick from the raw dough and some fruits. Keep in mind, this wasn’t just your average case of food poisoning caused by stale or undercooked foods. These cases involved potential killers such as campylobacter, e coli, and listeria. Why so many cases and how did they get to our food?

Website design By BotEap.comYou may be thinking this has to do with home cooks and restaurant employees not washing fresh vegetables before using them in something like a salad, a sandwich, or a wrap. Unfortunately, that was not the problem. Dirt and external contaminants, such as pesticides, can be removed from vegetables. Washing will do nothing for vegetables infected with campylobacter, e coli, and listeria. Today, there are more cases of vegetables infected with these contaminants than ever.

Website design By BotEap.comFor many years, the same groups of migrant workers and their children collected products grown in the United States. They used to move around the country because they had work most of the year. When there were no produce to harvest, they got jobs in food processing plants. However, as fast food franchises and restaurant chains became extremely popular in the 1980s and 1990s, producers grew larger and more people were needed to pick and help harvest their crops. This caused a large influx of new faces from Mexico and the South American nations.

Website design By BotEap.comThe old joke (and even a movie title) goes, “Don’t drink the water south of the border.” Why? Because the water supply in many of these poor countries is dangerously contaminated with all kinds of bacteria. This is because raw sewage is dumped into available water to move it away from populated areas in places that lack treatment facilities. This fact is proven by the regular pollution of seawater on San Diego beaches, which is sometimes so polluted with Mexican sewage that swimming is not safe.

Website design By BotEap.comIn many cases, the same fresh water that is heavily contaminated with sewage is used for drinking and laundry. Because this has gone on for so long, the people in these places have developed immunity to most pollutants. However, they remain in their bodies. Sometimes producers do not provide adequate portable toilet facilities for pickers or workers. The pollutants from their bodies end up in the ground. Likewise, food processing plants that don’t enforce hand washing or other food safety procedures end up with the same problem if their employees make physical contact with food through touch or sweat.

Website design By BotEap.comDangerous bacteria are absorbed by crops through the water they absorb from the soil. That kind of contamination cannot be washed away; it’s in the food. The same is true if bacteria get into processed foods inadvertently. Testing helps with processing facilities, but it is usually too late to catch all the contaminated food products in time to keep everyone safe. Last year, raw vegetables and some fresh fruits sickened one in six people in the United States and Canada. Much more than you got sick from undercooked or contaminated beef, chicken, pork, or seafood. We don’t have the immunities that food pickers and workers have to fight dangerous contaminants. So what can be done?

Website design By BotEap.comThere are some things you can do to protect yourself and your loved ones from these dangers. First, identify the problem foods that people tend to eat raw. These would include lettuce, celery, cabbage, leafy greens, sprouts, cucumbers, jalapeno peppers, and other seedless greens. I recommend heating raw vegetables in the microwave for 1-2 minutes on high power. Scientists disagree with each other about the benefit of the microwave, but it has worked for me and my family for years.

Website design By BotEap.comFruits, well I can only suggest that you buy fruits and vegetables grown in the US Take special care with strawberries, cantaloupes, and grapes. There are also many ways to cook fruit and preserve its flavor and health benefits. Then there are always fruit tarts (yum). Cook meats and eggs thoroughly and avoid unpasteurized milk and cheeses. Be careful with meats or seafood produced and processed in other countries. Not long ago, people got sick from shrimp raised in severely contaminated breeding pools outside of the US.

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