Many people are avoiding lettuce in the midst of the ongoing outbreak of Cyclospora, a microscopic parasite that can contaminate fresh produce and cause days—or even weeks—of miserable gastrointestinal illness. It's unusually stubborn: Unlike many foodborne pathogens, it can't reliably be washed off at home.
Communication from public-health agencies has been confusing, and though investigations are ongoing, no further sources of the outbreak have been identified. So how are the people who study food safety making sense of it all?
If you expected food safety experts to swear off salads until the Cyclospora outbreak is over, think again.
Barbara Kowalcyk, director of the Institute of Food Safety and Nutrition Security at George Washington University, agrees that avoiding all lettuce isn't the answer. Instead, she encourages people to think about their own level of risk. She's comfortable ordering a salad at a restaurant, even knowing it's likely made with bagged lettuce, because she's healthy and not immunocompromised. "I know the risks I'm taking," she says. But she notes that the calculation is different for young children, pregnant women, older adults, and anyone with a weakened immune system, all of whom are more vulnerable to serious foodborne illness.
They take more control over their lettuce
Some experts have changed one grocery-shopping habit over the years: They'd rather prepare their own lettuce than let someone else do it.
Marler points to the 2006 E.coli outbreak linked to bagged spinach, when contamination believed to have originated from wild pigs spread after spinach from across a field was harvested, chopped, washed, and packaged together. The pigs "didn't poop on everything," he says. But once the leaves were mixed, what might have remained a localized problem became a nationwide outbreak. "Convenience just isn't worth the risk."
For some experts, even "pre-washed" isn't enough. Gerardo Lopez, a food safety professor at the University of Arizona, still rinses bagged greens before serving them. "Just because something says pre-washed doesn't mean [it’s safe]," he says, noting there's still potential for cross-contamination. At home, he rinses leafy greens thoroughly under running water in a colander before serving them.
They pay attention to where their produce comes from
Darin Detwiler, an associate teaching professor of food policy at Northeastern University and author of Food Safety: Past, Present, and Predictions, pays close attention to where his produce comes from. At farmers markets, he asks two questions before buying anything: Where was this grown? And how recently was it harvested?
He brings that same curiosity to the grocery store. Detwiler encourages consumers to look beyond the brand name on the front of a package because it isn't always the company that actually grew the produce. During this outbreak, many people assumed they were unaffected because they didn't see "Taylor Farms" in their refrigerator—even though the same grower supplies produce sold under multiple labels.
Some food-safety experts aren't avoiding vegetables—they're changing how they prepare them. Lopez says his family has been eating fewer salads during the outbreak and more grilled vegetables instead. Cooking vegetables to about 158°F (70°C) inactivates Cyclospora, making grilled vegetables an appealing alternative while the investigation continues. His recent favorites include grilled zucchini, Brussels sprouts, corn on the cob, and tomatoes. He's also opting for cooked greens—like sautéed spinach—instead of raw salads.
They've built small habits into their kitchen routines
Kowalcyk recommends using a digital, tip-sensitive meat thermometer because, she says, "color and texture is not a good indicator of doneness." She also skips old-fashioned dial thermometers, which need to be calibrated—and often aren't.
She's equally careful at summer cookouts. Cooked food shouldn't sit out for more than two hours—and even less when temperatures are high. At a recent gathering, she nestled the hummus in a bowl of ice to keep it cold while people snacked. "Foodborne illness has a season," Kowalcyk says, which is why she's most vigilant in summer.
One reason this outbreak has been so difficult to follow is the fumbled communication of new developments. So where do the people who study food safety go when they want reliable information?
Kowalcyk recommends signing up for food recall alerts through FoodSafety.gov, which lets consumers receive notifications when new recalls are announced. She also suggests using your grocery store loyalty card. Many shoppers use fake phone numbers to avoid marketing emails, she says, but loyalty programs are increasingly how stores notify customers that they've purchased recalled products—or even print recall alerts directly on receipts.
"It's not like the FDA goes into a store and pulls recalled food off the shelf," Kowalcyk says. Instead, government agencies announce recalls and rely on retailers to remove the products. Studies have found that "recall effectiveness" isn't perfect, she says, making it all the more important to stay informed yourself.
They still eat out—they just ask more questions
For most of them, the answer is yes.
But Kowalcyk says where she eats is only part of the equation. If she's ordering a salad during an outbreak, she'll ask whether the restaurant is aware of the recall and whether staff know where its lettuce came from. If they can't answer those questions, she simply orders something else.
"How they react tells you a lot," she says. If a restaurant can't explain where its produce came from during an active outbreak, she'd rather choose something else on the menu.
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