This will make your stomach bloated.
As Dozens of people are sick with E. coli In the outbreak linked to the McDonald’s Quarter Pounder, food safety experts are explaining which items to stay away from to avoid foodborne illness at the grocery store.
At the top of the list are bagged, pre-washed greens.
Barbara Kowalczyk, director of the Institute for Food Safety and Nutrition Security at George Washington University, said: nbc news Produce that claims to be pre-washed – such as salads, vegetables or even cut fruits – should be avoided, as these can be a breeding ground for bacteria.
Instead, she recommends buying whole heads of lettuce and washing it yourself with water and patting it dry with a paper towel.
“Any leaves that are broken or damaged, I throw them away, because that’s how bacteria can get in there,” she explained, adding that she also avoids sprouts and melons. “And I usually take off the outer leaves and throw them away.”
The mesh rind of cantaloupe can trap bacteria, said Darrin Detwiler, a professor of food regulatory policy at Northeastern University.
“It’s one of the deadliest produce of all things,” he told NBC News. “The pH of cantaloupe is perfect, and you can’t clean the outside enough.”
Don Schaffner, a food science professor at Rutgers University, warned that most fruits — especially if they’ve been kept out for a long time — also pose a risk.
“I do a lot of workshops, and they often have cut fruit on the breakfast buffet, and that fruit sits there all day,” he told NBC News. “We’ve done research to show that its physical form doesn’t change, but it can grow bacteria like nobody’s business.”
according to Centers for Disease Control and PreventionSymptoms of food poisoning from bacteria like Listeria or E. coli – which cause infections in the gastrointestinal tract -Includes nausea, vomiting, fever, stomach pain and diarrhea. In some cases the result may also be admitted to hospital Or be fatal.
Already, one person has died in Colorado from a McDonald’s E. coli outbreak spread to many statesAs a supplier of fast food chains missed yellow onions “Exercising extreme caution,” prompting other restaurants. do the same,
Schaffner points out that the more food is processed from the farm to your table, the greater the risk of bacteria entering it that could make you sick.
“The more manipulation you do, obviously the more room there is for things to go wrong,” he said.
