Could Green Beans Be Next?

By Erin in Food on Oct 9, 2006 7:53PM

It appears that the E. coli contamination is far from over; Salinas, CA-based Nunes Co. Inc. has recalled lettuce after it found some "generic" E. coli in a secondary water source for the lettuce. Generic E. coli? That sounds sort of like "half-pregnant" or "mostly dead" do us -- we aren't sure if we buy it.

In response to the recall, company president Tom Nunes Jr. said, "Food safety is number one in our company. We'd rather make a mistake and be overly careful than getting somebody sick."

We agree that it is better to be safe than sorry when it comes to food safety. Contaminated spinach is being blamed for the kidney failure of an elderly LaSalle County woman after she ate bagged spinach in September as well as in the deaths of three other people around the country. Clearly it wasn't a good month for Popeye's favorite snack food.

With spinach and lettuce on the chopping block (ha ha), are leafy greens getting a bad reputation? We don't think kale, chard and arugula should take the fall for spinach and lettuce. Especially with it getting colder, heartier greens like chard are coming into their own. Hopefully this latest E. coli scare won't have as serious consequences as the last one, and we can all go back to chowing down on salads and spanakopita.

Image courtesy of Whole Foods Market.

Thanks, Laura!