Dive Brief:
- CDC has added leafy greens to the food history questionnaires that the agency uses to interview foodborne illness patients.
- The move comes after a 2014 listeria outbreak linked to Dole packaged salads, which caused 33 illnesses in the U.S. and Canada.
- If the CDC had added leafy greens to the questionnaire earlier, investigators may have been able to track down the Dole listeria outbreak sooner.
Dive Insight:
While the CDC claims this is the first listeria outbreak of its kind associated with leafy greens, the consensus may be what took the agency so long to realize that leafy greens could pose safety challenges. In 2013, the CDC named leafy greens, such as lettuce or spinach, as the leading cause of food poisoning for the years 1998 to 2008, based on the most comprehensive report CDC has done on food poisoning sources.
Vegetables accounted for more than 88% of food recalls from April to June 2016, according to a recent study from Stericycle ExpertSolutions. This may not necessarily be because vegetables are less safe than other food products but that produce makes up a significant portion of the food supply, Bob Brackett, vice president and director of the Institute of Food Safety at Illinois Institute of Technology, told Food.Mic.
As more consumers push to eat leafy greens as part of their "healthier" diets, foodborne illness outbreaks tied to packaged salads or leafy greens could become more common — or at least more commonly reported. That's especially true for salads and value-added produce, as the convenience of the product coupled with the health benefits of produce are driving saless. Value-added vegetables posted sales growth of 15% CAGR from 2011 to 2015.
Because manufacturers and consumers don't normally treat packaged salads and other leafy greens with heat before consumption, these products are more susceptible to contamination by listeria or E. coli than other foods.