Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Salads laced with parasites


Pre-washed leafy-greens salads offered in supermarkets may be laced with parasites, judging by the results of a survey conducted by Health Canada and the Public Health Agency.

When they tested 544 samples of store-bought, pre-washed salads, they found parasites in 10 per cent of them.

The parasites were cyclospora, cryptosporidium and giardia which can all cause diarrhea and stomach upsets.

The research team called this “a relatively high prevalence of all three parasites” and said “this, along with the fact that all isolates tested represented species and genotypes commonly reported in humans, suggests that there is a potential for transmission to consumers, particularly since these leafy greens are typically consumed raw."

Their findings have been published recently in the Journal of Food Protection.
They found no link between their test results and reports of food-poisoning outbreaks.

However, another study by the Centres for Disease Control in the United States found that 46 per cent of food poisonings arise from produce.

Brent Dixon, a parasite scientist with Health Canada and one of the report’s authors, said the study breaks new ground for scientists studying the North American food supply chain -- and serves as a wake-up call.

"The fact (the parasites) are there at all is of some concern to us," he told CTV News. All of the packages said the salads had been pre-washed, in some cases three times.

Dixon said consumers could do their own washing", but that still would not remove all of the parasites.

On the other hand, Dixon said the benefits of eating raw greens likely outweighs the risks.

People who have suffered food poisoning from these products might have a different opinion.