Apparently washing lettuce is "food processing"...

[Recursion]

http://wholefoodusa.wordpress.com/2009/07/12/alert-ohio-farm-food-and-health-alert/

The Ohio Department of Health/Department of Agriculture has issued a Notice of Violation to a farmer at a farmers market in Lake County on 7/8/09.

According to the notice, it is a violation to offer cleaned and rinsed “lettuce and mixed greens” in a package at a farmers market. It must be sold dirty, the notice says.

This is due to new rules and the definition of “food processing”. Since the lettuce was cleaned and rinsed with water, the food is defined as “adulterated” because the person doing so is an unlicensed “processor”.

Processors are also subject to home kitchen and farm inspections and seizure of business records. In effect the official notice implies that cleaned and packaged greens are adulterated, while dirty greens are healthier and safer. By their own definitions, dirty vegetables are acceptable, while cleaned and rinsed vegetables are not and are unsafe and “potentially hazardous”.

Seriously, I sometimes think the parts of the government won't be happy until all food passes through the hands of large corporations...

[aquart]

1. Asses. If they dare to pull that at my greenmarket...

[LaurenG]

2. I'm thinking that without regulation contaminated water could be used

inadvertantly...but I'm only speculating. :shrug:

[Recursion]

3. It's part of a long-standing effort to keep farmers from selling directly to consumers

This isn't remotely the first example of something like this.

We tend to think of government regulation as working against the power of corporations, but that isn't how it tends to work in a lot of fields. Usually regulations end up being co-opted by corporations to push small competitors out of business.

[unpossibles]

4. I agree. If the lettuce is sold as "washed" then people will eat it directly

what if the water is not up to safety standards? It makes more sense to sell it dirty as then people will wash it themselves. Also, in a sense this could protect the farmer/seller as the onus is now upon the consumer if they get sick from not washing, from what I can tell.

[Recursion]

5. Yeah, and if we'd done that for packaged spinach in grocery stores

maybe we wouldn't have had that E coli outbreak two years ago.

Why not just forbid the sale of washed vegetables, period?

[unpossibles]

6. I would not mind that, honestly

Also, the larger (real) problem with the spinach is the way we raise livestock. It's pretty disgusting what passes for normal sometimes.

[TimesSquareCowboy]

8. That's why they have the rule, I would think.

It's not that it's washed, it's that once it's washed bacteria survive and thrive inside the closed package.

[yellowcanine]

10. Washing is not an effective way to remove E. coli, unfortunately.

The packaged spinach with E. coli had been washed.

[lib_wit_it]

7. I want mine washed, dammit--I never wash my fruits and veggies. Then again, I'm not that healthy.

I do buy organic, though, always on the greens, and usually on the fruits. I wouldn't eat as much lettuce (and other greens in the mix) if I had to wash every leaf. I wonder how the risk-benefit ratio works out.

[bertman]

9. Grit crunching between your teeth. Grind those babies down to a nub.

[lib_wit_it]

11. Egads, no! If there's any discernible dirt, I do wash it. It's just the invisible toxic things I'm

too lazy to wash off. I keep promising myself to get a salad spinner so I'll be more likely to clean the greens, as that's my major stumbling block--I can never get it dry after washing!

[cornermouse]

12. Your first clue

The National Animal Identification System. They're working on it.

[winyanstaz]

13. This is just plain beyond stupid

Who are these idiots that come up with this stuff? How the hell do they get government jobs? Don't we have the right to at least expect our public servants to have a brain cell or two? sheesh.
Of course they won't be happy until they control all the water, all the food and all the air.

[noamnety]

14. Ridiculous

You can water the lettuce while it grows 2 seconds before you pick it, but if you put the exact same water on it 2 seconds after you pick it, it's at risk for contamination?