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  • From: Peter Worsley <pwors AT svn.net>
  • To: market farming <market-farming AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: Salad mix legislation
  • Date: Tue, 16 May 2000 10:02:31 -0700


Seems to me that the most important factor is quality of wash water,
plus, of course, sanitation of the person who washes, bags, etc. In
California, there is no legislation that I know of, but the CA Dept of
Ag and the local health depts encourage growers to work toward good
post-harvest practices. But nothing formal, as far as I know. Most of
the efforts to prevent e-coli are focused on meat. When (if) the state
or the feds pass legislation re salad mix, it will be the end of that
product as grown by small growers, I suspect. Certainly no manure should
be used for at least 6 months before harvest on fields where any product
which the consumer assumes is already washed is produced.- Peter

Adriana Gutierrez & Dennis LaGatta wrote:
>
> > Interestingly, Whole Foods recently shut the market down. The reason
> > given was the
> > legislation (based on incidents in California, I think?) relating to
> > sterilizing the
> > processing equipment used for salad mix, and getting certified for it.
> > The cost of
> > certification is laughably high, and local farmers couldn't afford it.
> > Now salad mix
> > cannot be locally grown - or offered in front of the store.
>
> Does anybody have any additional information on salad mix related
> legislation? I think it is something all of us who grow it should be
> concerned about for health AND business reasons. I assume that the
> legislation in question relates to post harvest handling (cooling,
> washing, packing) in a certified food processing facility which is very
> expensive to set up. I believe that sprouts have been declared a
> processed product by the FDA and as such require certification, has this
> line been crossed yet for salad mix? Or is it only for that which is
> labeled ready-to-eat?
>
> One question I have relates to safety issues at harvest. Most produce,
> for example broccoli, is cut once in the fields and the stem is then
> re-cut by the consumer at the time of consumption. I assume that it is
> possible to get some contamination from field soils, dust etc. into the
> tissues of the leaves at the point of cutting. Since the thousands of
> leaves making up a batch of mesclun are never re-cut again is there the
> potential for some contamination at the cut site that is impossible to
> remove through normal washing techniques?
>
> Adriana
>
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