From The Atlantic.
The safety of America’s food supply is getting murkier. If there’s one thing you can do right now to help protect yourself, it’s this: swearing off bagged, prechopped lettuce, Nicholas Florko writes.
America’s system for tracking and responding to foodborne illnesses has been woefully neglected for decades, and recently it’s been undermined even further. The Biden administration cut funding for food inspections, and the Trump White House’s attempts to ruthlessly thin the federal workforce have made the future of food safety even more uncertain. “The system faces so many stressors,” Florko writes, “that regulators may miss cases of foodborne illness, giving Americans a false sense of security.”
Bagged lettuce ups the odds of getting a tainted product: The process of making prechopped lettuce essentially entails putting whole heads through a wood chipper, Florko explains. Once a single infected head enters that machine, some pieces of the infected lettuce stick around, and it’s likely that subsequent heads will become infected.
“Lettuce and other leafy greens are full of nutrients, and abandoning them is not a win for your health,” Florko continues. But luckily, there’s an easy solution. Find out more at the link.
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