DAYTON — We are all busy these days, and saving time when making dinner can be a game-changer, but when it comes to pre-cut vegetables, that convenience can come at a cost.
News Center 7’s Consumer Reporter Xavier Hershovitz explains what you need to keep in mind before your next grocery trip.
David, from Dayton, was headed into Walmart and said, “I want to grow my own vegetables, then Walmart will be out of the question as far as groceries.”
But until then, it’s grocery store runs to get what he needs. Like most of us, he’s busy, and so many turn to those pre-chopped or pre-sliced veggies to use in our own recipes.
When it comes to veggies these days, there’s a lot of convenience.
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Food Safety Expert, Dr. Darin Detwiler, said, “Convenience is great, but it’s kind of like that superhero quote, with great power comes responsibility.”
Detwiler has spent the last 30 years focused on food safety. In 1993, he lost his 16-month-old son, Riley, after an E. coli outbreak. Since then, he’s made it his mission for people to understand their role in food safety, especially when it comes to pre-sliced fruits or salad kits.
“People assume that, well, if it’s been processed because it’s more convenient, because it’s already packaged, they must have cleaned it already, and it’s not,” Detwiler said.
Consumer Reports looked through food recalls and foodborne disease outbreaks from 2017 to 2022. They found that there were more than 4 million cases of recalled leafy greens, leading to 614 people getting sick and 11 deaths.
“People kind of see a bag of lettuce and assume it’s one head of lettuce. They don’t realize it’s multiple heads of lettuce, multiple different kinds of lettuce that come from, in some cases, different farms in different locations. If any one of those heads of lettuce was contaminated, the whole thing is contaminated,” Detwiler said.
The more steps between the farms and your table, increases the opportunity for contamination.
One way to cut out that middleman is to buy from a local farmer. Josh Fulton is a third-generation farmer at Fulton Farms in Miami County.
“We got to grow some of the best sweet corn in Ohio. It’s really, really good,” Fulton said.
He’s proud of their crops, many of which are just being planted now. When you shop at a local farm, Josh says you’re getting fruits or veggies about as fresh as you can.
“The types of varieties we’re planting, we’re meant to pick fresh, sell on the market. They’re not meant to hold; they’re meant to have the most nutrition, you know, the best taste,” Fulton said.
Fulton and Detwiler both say grocery stores still play an important role.
“That’s a necessary part. I mean, it’s something I love. I want fresh fruit in the wintertime,” Fulton said.
“You want to have some canned items and some frozen items to last longer. I think that a good, healthy balance is if we have some items that we purchase regularly, especially products that come from our local farms,” Detwiler said.
And, when it comes to those pre-sliced or chapped items, Detwiler says, “What may be good for you as a healthy adult, might not necessarily be adequate for someone who is very young or very elderly with a compromised immune system, or pregnant.”
He suggests consumers look at two things: when are you going to eat this, and who is going to eat it?
It’s about consideration, not completely changing your shopping or your eating habits.
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