If finding insects in your food makes your stomach turn, you’ll want to stay far away from bagged salad in grocery stores. Consumers have been opening the prepackaged food to find much worse in recent years. Believe it or not, frogs, toads, lizards and bats (oh my!) have been making their way into bagged salad across the country.
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While prepackaged salads aren’t ideal, they’re convenient — a characteristic that entices many busy, tired and overworked Americans. But after multiple instances of “extra ingredients” in bagged salad, researchers started looking into the problem. They reviewed reports dating back to 2003 and noted details such as the date and location, the type of produce, whether the produce was boxed or bagged, the type of animal species found and whether the species was dead or alive, whole or partial. Researchers noted their findings in a recent study.
According to the study, about 53% of the animals found in salad were frogs and toads, around 23% were reptiles, nearly 18% were mammals and the remaining animals found in salad were birds. In 2017, a bat was found in bagged salad purchased at a Florida grocery store.
Researchers noted the animal findings were three times more likely in bags of conventional vegetables, compared to organic greens. They also noted the possibility that wildlife end up in packaged salad even more frequently than their findings suggest. The study authors concluded that further investigation into the harvesting and production processes is necessary to determine when and how the animals are ending up in bagged salads, and what precautions are needed to prevent it from happening.
If this study doesn’t convince you to make the switch to fresh produce, instead of conveniently packaged produce, there’s probably not much that will. To get the most out of your produce, always opt for fresh, organic varieties. To help reduce your risk of foodborne pathogens and exposure to pesticides, always wash your produce thoroughly at home using baking soda and white vinegar. Use a concentration of 1 teaspoon of baking soda for every 2 cups of water and gentle scrubbing. Remove the baking soda, then mist your produce thoroughly with a blend of vinegar and water in a 1-to-3 ratio. Let the produce rest for 30 minutes, then wash it lightly under cold running water.