Today, it’s cyclospora. But leafy greens are often to blame in large foodborne illness outbreaks - from bacterial infections like shiga-toxin producing E. coli, campylobacter, and Salmonella, to viruses like norovirus, and, of course, to parasites like Cyclospora.
Overall, leafy greens are tied to 2.3 million estimated illnesses and $5.28 billion in costs annually in the U.S. Lettuce, in particular, is often the culprit. It’s linked to over three quarters of illnesses caused by leafy greens.
That’s for a few reasons. First and foremost, lots and lots of Americans eat lettuce. It’s second only to potatoes among vegetables (and note, there was much discussion in the ZHH office about whether potatoes can really count as vegetables…the National Potato Council says yes).
Row crops like lettuce are often exposed to pathogens when they’re irrigated with untreated water. That’s true of lots of veggies and fruits, but the key here is that we eat lettuce raw, without cooking it. That eliminates a key kill-step in preventing many foodborne pathogens from spreading. Lettuce and other leafy greens are also hard to wash - they’re physically bumpy, have folds and crevices where nasty pathogens can hide.
So, lettuce isn’t inherently more likely to have nasty germs than any other fresh produce, but the way we prepare and eat it makes it more likely to get us sick.
Sources: WIRED, Journal of Food Protection, NIH
Believe it or not, we’ve gotten lucky this summer. That’s because this massive Cyclospora outbreak is actually quite a tame pathogen compared to other foodborne illnesses, which can be much deadlier.