Leslie wrote this in August 2026, when produce outbreaks were in the news every night and our clients were asking questions. There have been more recalls since. The advice hasn’t changed.
My husband and I recently returned from an amazing trip to Peru. Somewhere along the way, he and others in our party came down with the dreaded traveler’s diarrhea. My husband’s turned out to be Cyclospora — a parasite, one of the less common causes, and treated with a round of antibiotics. Thankfully he was fine in a few days.
On a musical mission trip with Proclaim! International, we were warned by several people who had previously made the trip, “don’t open your mouth in the shower” and “don’t eat any fresh produce you can’t peel.” Good advice for much travel. Well, we were very surprised to come back to the States and see there had been an outbreak here as well.
Why I’m writing this
My clients are asking questions, rightfully concerned. When we shop for our weekly clients, we’re being asked where the produce comes from. The host for an upcoming cooking class asked me this morning whether it’s still safe to teach Vietnamese spring rolls made using fresh produce.
Those are good questions, and they deserve real answers. So here are mine.
The seriousness of it
The outbreak is real. Just over 6,000 cases, 278 hospitalizations, and two deaths, both in Michigan, both in people with underlying health conditions. I’m not going to wave that away, and I don’t think anyone should.
All our chefs are ServSafe certified, so we understand food-borne illnesses – their causes, and how to prevent them when handling food. It’s something personal chefs take seriously in addition to special dietary needs and allergies.
What I want you to know
The CDC statistics no one likes to hear: every year in the U.S., foodborne illness makes 48 million people sick. That’s one in six of us. Every year, 128,000 of us are hospitalized and 3,000 die of all food-borne illness. Those are the numbers in an ordinary year, when nothing is on the news at all.
What I want you to know: The current outbreak accounts for about two-tenths of one percent of a normal year’s hospitalizations.
I’m not telling you that to make you careless. I’m telling you because the amount of coverage something gets is not the same thing as the amount of risk it carries, and it is very easy to confuse the two right now. I stopped watching the news a LONG time ago.
Simply arm yourself with knowledge and act accordingly.
Lettuce
Cyclospora can’t be killed by any amount of cleaning. Only heating.
But don’t stop eating lettuce. Iceberg is always the least tasty and least nutritious of all the lettuces from a food appreciation standpoint anyway, and this is a fine season to go discover the rest of them.
When you buy fresh lettuce, purchase whole heads from known sources. Peel the outer layers off. Cut the core out. Rinse it well, agitating it with your hands, not just under a stream, then let it air dry thoroughly. Then enjoy it.
Washing alone won’t kill anything. By removing the outer layers, you discard where the parasites are. That’s a meaningful reduction in risk, and it’s honest to call it that and not more. The only confirmed kill step is heat, at 158 degrees. When in doubt, heat it. Lettuces are lovely in Asian broth soups, by the way. And who doesn’t love a grilled Caesar Salad?
The recalled lettuce came from Taylor Farms de Mexico. It was served at Taco Bell, but it was also sold at retail as Marketside iceberg and shredded lettuce, and it went to 27 states including ours. So check your refrigerator, not just where you ate.
The jalapeños
The most recent salmonella outbreak comes from contaminated jalapeños out of Mexico. These are already in products prepared for sale in grocery stores — guacamole, pico de gallo, taco dip.
If you want to avoid any risk at all, know the ingredients in your food. If in doubt, purchase produce you can trace and touch. Making more food from scratch with whole ingredients gives you more control what you and your family ingest. That’s always good practice. If you own a food processor, dips like salsa and guacamole take SECONDS of preparation.
The blueberries
E. coli was found in frozen blueberries from Chile, sold at Publix under the GreenWise organic label.
You can’t wash your way out of this one — it’s frozen fruit eaten as is, and freezing kills nothing. But it’s August in North Carolina. Purchase local blueberries, wash and dry them, and you’ve solved the problem by ignoring it.
And yes, we’re still teaching spring rolls
This Saturday I am teaching an Asian Fusion class to a family of all ages. Children who wouldn’t normally touch a salad have fun rolling veggies into squishy clear rice paper rolls and dipping them into peanut sauce. So I will source the lettuce and cilantro at my local grocery store and will handle it exactly as I described above. I will choose other vegetables that can be peeled (cucumber, carrot), which is good advice even when you’re not traveling.
About farmers markets
Local farmers markets are a perfect venue to purchase local things, which is important in today’s economy. However, freedom from contamination of any organic produce is never 100 percent guaranteed. If it’s organic, I hope it’s dirty – it proves it just came out of the ground.
So use the same knowledge and act on it. Wash it. Air dry it. Enjoy it. When in doubt, heat it.
Finally
Forgive the food pun, but take in all the news with a bit of salt. Don’t allow the outbreaks to make you afraid. Don’t operate from fear, even when it comes to foodborne illness. Arm yourself with knowledge and act accordingly.
Humor also helps. I think my friend Jessica nailed it when she said, “I’m eating a BLT with produce from my own garden. Thankfully, I don’t poop in my garden, so there’s no risk involved.”
On that note, happy eating.
Want to learn this hands-on? See our upcoming Public Classes, or call us at 919-444-2840.
