Ready-to-eat spinach bears tough microbes
From Atlanta, at a meeting of the American Society for Microbiology
People who eat bagged salad may be getting more than they bargained for. Researchers have found that some ready-to-eat spinach contains a significant number of bacteria, many of which are resistant to several antibiotics.
The popularity of convenience foods, such as prewashed salads, has surged. “People assume that ‘ready-to-eat’ means that it’s clean” and relatively free of bacteria, says Sonia Walia of Oakland University in Rochester Hills, Mich. She and her colleagues set out to test that assumption by investigating several bags of Dole Ready-To-Eat Baby Spinach, a popular bagged salad.