What about the E. coli outbreak? How do you come through it there?
http://www.euronews.net/2011/05/26/raw-vegetables-suspected-for-ger...
http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110527/full/news.2011.332.html
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2011/05/26/e-coli-hus-germany-sw...
http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2011/05/german-e-coli-outbreak-hittin...
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/29/us-germany-ecoli-idUSTRE7...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43206456/ns/health/t/german-e-coli-outb...
Permalink Reply by Don Bennett on Thanks Daniela! I'm not going, my friend is, to Berlin.
What is a "bio-store"?
Lissa, thanks! And yes, fear is a powerful motivator. But there's also "tis better to be safe than sorry" that's probably driving a lot of food related decisions.
I told my friend to buy some 3% Hydrogen Peroxide when she gets there (I assume it's sold in drug stores), and to clean what she buys with it if she's concerned. She probably won't eat in restaurants for fear of being infected. Me? When there was the spinach and lettuce scares here in the U.S. last year, I wasn't concerned. But this strain found in Germany is said to be a much more virulent strain, so people with less than optimal "immune" systems should be cautious.
Permalink Reply by Don Bennett on 
Permalink Reply by Linda on Latest news...:
http://www.latimes.com/health/boostershots/la-heb-ecoli-cucumbers-2...
Couldn't the cause be in the meat?
Permalink Reply by Hylas on Well, the meat industry is responsible for the spread of E. Coli one way or another. E. Coli is produced in cows' guts, and is accelerated when cows are fed species-inappropriate feed like genetically modified corn and soy. Fruit and vegetables are grown in in these cows' manure, so E. Coli contaminates the crops. As Gary Yourofsky has said, "Spinach doesn't sh*t". You don't get E. Coli without sh*t.
What's really worrisome is that here in the Czech Republic, some of the batch of potentially tainted Spanish cucumbers first blamed for all this was tracked and located at Country Life distributors. Country Life provides the only (extremely expensive, sparse and usually old) widely available bio (organic) produce in the Czech Republic. Hm. Untrustworthy? I can't afford to buy bio produce one way or another anyway, (it's not really possible to live organic here) but still... upsetting.
Permalink Reply by Kaz on The latest
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/8553303/German-E.coli-...
When we had an eColi outbreak (from meat) the veggie crowd were crowing until it was pointed out that any cross contamination, from faeces, humans or meat, could infect veggies just as easily as meat.
Washing veggies in water with a tablespoon of vinegar in it was always the recommendation then. Soak for 3 - 5 mins and rinse.
Ready prepared salad is 'processed' food and comes with loads more risks as it is not going to be cooked.
Lots of cheap cucumber in Tescos though!
Permalink Reply by Hotmail on I've been put off eating any greens because of this, yesterday I gave in and decided to cook some greens(lightly steamed), I had food poisoning before and I really don't want to have it ever again.
I love cucumbers :(
So Kaz do you think washing with vinegar water is OK? I miss the greens.
Permalink Reply by Kirsten Mango on yep, one day i also cooked them, but i didn't like it that much as well. fresh greens taste so much better.
so, what i do now is filling up the sink with water. for every liter of water i've filled in, i put in one teaspoon of baking soda. IThen I put in all of the greens I wanna have for dinner and let them in there for 5-10 minutes. After that, I rinse off the baking soda. I'm hoping that this kills all of the harmful substances.
Do you guys think that this might work? I'm really afraid of getting this since we're all eating loads of greens :(
Permalink Reply by Don Bennett on You can also use 3% Hydrogen Peroxide (H2O2) to disinfect food (and to disinfect countertops).
H2O2 as a food wash: Add 1 tbsp 3% hydrogen peroxide to one gallon of water. Soak fruit, vegetables for 10 minutes. Drain thoroughly. Soak in clean water for a full 15 minutes.
H2O2 can irritate mucous membranes, so keep it way from your eyes. I know that some H2O2 sites say you can rinse your mouth with it, but I wouldn’t.
If you're using H2O2 in the process of cleaning fruit, you might want to lay out a towel or plastic. You can of course spray 3% H2O2 on the counter and wipe it right off to disinfect the counter, but if a puddle of H2O2 were to lay on the counter for a period of time, it might bleach the counter if the counter is subject to damage from bleach or H2O2. H2O2 acts just like bleach; it will pull colors out of fabric and even bleach skin, so I'd wear latex gloves when using H2O2.
Permalink Reply by Kirsten Mango on http://mobil.zeit.de/wissen/gesundheit/2011-06/ehec-suche-forscher
That's the latest news I got. It's in german, but it says, that the source of the bacteria could be meat, since it is produced in the gut of cattles. So this expert says that he rather assumes the bacteria in raw meat and not so long cooked steaks. Furthermore he says that the bacteria could have developed the resistance due to all the antibiotics in the animal food.
Permalink Reply by Don Bennett on What do you think of this possibility?
> E COLI IN/ON FRUIT: "The use of manure as a fertiliser could have led to
> contamination of vegetables WHICH INGEST THE BACTERIA AS THEY GROW."
>
> THIS IS A QUOTE FROM AN ARTICLE ON THE INTERNET. IS IT POSSIBLE THAT THE E
> COLI BACTERIA COULD BE THROUGHOUT THE PLANT? IF SO, WASHING IT
> WITH HYDROGEN PEROXIDE WON'T BE EFFECTIVE.
Permalink Reply by Kaz on More likely that the e coli got in the vat with the sprouts and is then heated. Ideal conditions for bacterial growth.
After the outbreak of E Coli 0157 on spinach in USA the subsequent trails said NO, no significant levels got into the leaves and shoots.
http://barfblog.foodsafety.ksu.edu/blog/147517/11/04/01/can-e-coli-...
It would take a major breach of food production protocol to get anything INTO the plant and by that time the whole outside of the plant would have been contaminated.
Permalink Reply by 1z9dt31x24k11 on 
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