Health Warning: Be Aware Where Your Vegetables Came From…
The following health warning regarding the possibility of ‘tainted’ vegetables (in your grocery store?) is gross, but very serious nonetheless. After reading this you will want to know where your vegetables came from, and/or it may seriously motivate you to grow your own…
The following warning is very likely just the tip of the iceberg, so to speak…
The FDA issued a warning on Monday that cilantro imported from Puebla, Mexico has caused outbreaks of intestinal disease in Texas and Wisconsin.
And here’s the gross part… The reason is due to the behavior of Mexican field workers defecating amongst the vegetables. The report by the FDA cited inspections that found human feces and toilet paper in fields where the cilantro was grown.
Conditions observed at multiple such firms (in Mexico) included human feces and toilet paper found in growing fields and around facilities; inadequately maintained and supplied toilet and hand washing facilities (no soap, no toilet paper, no running water, no paper towels) or a complete lack of toilet and hand washing facilities; food-contact surfaces (such as plastic crates used to transport cilantro or tables where cilantro was cut and bundled) visibly dirty and not washed; and water used for purposes such as washing cilantro vulnerable to contamination from sewage/septic systems. In addition, at one such firm, water in a holding tank used to provide water to employees to wash their hands at the bathrooms was found to be positive for C. cayetanensis.
Apparently the Texas Department of State Health Services reported more than 200 recent cases of Cyclosporiasis and there is apparently an outbreak in Wisconsin.
Cyclosporiasis is an intestinal illness caused by the parasite ‘Cyclospora cayetanensis’ (infected people shed this in their stool).
Sorry to gross you out, but, imagine where so much of your imported food and vegetables come from. Do you believe that these are places where workers and conditions are squeaky clean? In reality they are likely much worse. There is no doubt in my mind that just because they’ve identified cilantro (in this particular warning) does not mean that there are no other examples of this kind of contamination in other imported vegetables.
My suggestions?
Know where your food comes from. Whooops — the United States Congress just voted to to nix the “country of origin labeling”! I wonder why? Oh that’s right — they’re not concerned about you and I (except right prior to an election) — instead it’s about the lobbyist money from big business…
Grow your own vegetables!
And/or sanitize your vegetables…
What’s your opinion about this? Do you believe that it is likely typical for so called ‘3rd-world’ country vegetable pickers to relieve themselves amongst the fields and to be operating and distributing in unhealthy and dirty unsanitary conditions? Do you believe that most Americans don’t give it a single thought in the grocery stores? How many of you wash your vegetables? How do you do it? Lots of questions…