Posted on 04/27/2022 9:47:36 AM PDT by ConservativeMind
New research suggests that disease-causing amoebas that live on organic leafy vegetables can shelter human pathogens like Pseudomonas, Salmonella, and Helicobacter and are a potential risk to public health.
Foodborne illness from consuming contaminated fresh produce is common and can have serious effects on human health, especially when eaten raw. During growth, harvest, transportation and further processing and handling, fresh produce can be contaminated with pathogens from human or animal sources, through contact with soil, irrigation water, air, rain, insects, and during industrial produce-washing.
Vegetables can become contaminated with certain protozoa (single-celled organisms) such as free-living amoebae (FLA), that feed on bacteria and can act as hosts to pathogenic bacteria (the so-called "Trojan horses") which resist FLA digestion and could be a threat to public health.
The main bacterial types identified were Flavobacterium (found in 10% of vegetable samples) and Pseudomonas (10%), many of which do not cause disease in humans. However, a third of samples (34%) contained 52 potentially disease-causing types of bacteria including Legionella, Salmonella, and Arcobacter. The resulting infections can cause pneumonia and gastrointestinal illness.
Moreover, the FLA species Vermamoeba vermiformis that commonly causes severe infections in humans was found in a fifth (19%) of vegetable samples; and Acanthamoeba castellanii, that can cause blindness and encephalitis were identified in almost two thirds (63%) of samples.
"The presence of bacteria contained inside the free-living amoebae suggests that they are vehicles that can easily transmit pathogens capable of reaching humans and causing health problems through contaminated organic vegetables", says Dr. Moreno. "Contamination can arise as a consequence of treating soil with organic fertilizers such as manure and sewage sludge and from irrigation water. Leafy greens are particularly susceptible to fecal contamination due to their proximity to the ground and the likelihood of humans consuming them without cooking."
(Excerpt) Read more at medicalxpress.com ...
“but if you eat their little dead carcasses in your salad you could still get sick and die. “
Dead larvae in your stomach do not trigger the disease symptoms.
It's a wonder the human race survived before chemicals. /s
Don't poop in the fields! Don't put raw, fresh manure on the fields. Wash your hands. Wash the veggies. Keep facilities clean. Keep rodents out of the facilities!
Funny thing is, 'organic' has a slew of rules and regs like compost must reach 140 degrees for a certain length of time, in days, to kill pathogens. Only certain fertilizers can be used and fresh manure isn't one of them. After that, the organic veggies get treated about the same as non-organic. (pathogens from human or animal sources)(contact with soil, irrigation water, air, rain, insects) Applies to all veggies, organic or not.
Did they try the same tests with non-organic to compare? Doesn't seem so. Do they wash non-organic in something different than organic?
Seems like we had e-coli in ALL romaine lettuce not too long ago, organic, non-organic, didn't matter. I'd say some things or some people in the food system are just nasty.
Soaking veggies is not always good, either. If you just spritz and then let them sit in a bowl of water, they will suck up all that glorious water via their stems — bringing the buggies inside.
As one said, buggies are everywhere.
But, the specification on “organic” is quite lax on rat poop, bug parts, etc; compared to regular food. Using uncured poo as fertilizer practically guarantees nasty germs all over your leafy veggies. If human poo, you will get very, very sick.
I am not sure that you can make an infected slug safe to eat even if you were to soak it in hydrogen peroxide. And I am not sure that I would feel comfortable eating a fully cooked little slug.
I must admit however that I have a bias in this conversation. I grew up on a 50 acre “hobby farm”. The meat we ate was from animals we knew the names of. We ran around finding eggs that our little free roaming chickens laid. The vegetables came from our garden and my grandmother's garden and greenhouse. Grandmother was a product of the depression and never threw away anything. We got raw milk from my parents’ friends. We also picked wild fruit whenever it was in season along with the fruit from our trees that we sold at a stand in front of our house.
These days every apple you grow in our area gets infested with apple maggots. And there really is nothing that you can do to get rid of them. We still eat them fresh off the tree and bake them because you can't really taste them, and they are not actually bad for you. But the apples rot almost immediately. The pears are usually OK.
I guess you just do not appreciate the things that you grew up with. We did get some food from the grocery store. And my wife and I have had gardens for years as well. But in our case even though many of our home-grown fruits and vegetables do taste better... it really makes us appreciate the produce department. Most people have no clue how much effort and expense goes into gardening for a slightly better product. And my wife and I have tried growing lettuce and other leafy greens, but the slugs have a way of getting into every nook and cranny. In our area you have to inspect every leaf.
And my experience with “organic” fruits and vegetables from a grocery store is that it is no better and often not as good as the normal produce at the same store for twice the money. I am not sure that it is any more dangerous than normal produce, because I have never been convinced that it was not just raunchier looking stuff from the same farms.
We had a small lumber mill when I was younger and organic fruit and vegetables always reminded me of the wood that didn't make the grade.
It has to be alive while inside of you to do damage.
The reason for this is because the chemicals used for organic growing have much less efficacy that those certified for non-organic growing
That means that the organic grower is spraying numerous times more than the organic grower.
Dispute this if you wish, but I speak from experience.
Wouldn’t a simple washing of the produce before eating remove the microbes?
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Washed with water that we urinate and defecate in before making it safe by decontaminating it with a deadly chemical called chlorine.
Whether organic or conventional, you should wash your produce with a vegetable wash before eating. Unless you are fixing salad, thoroughly cook all vegetables to reduce your risk. Cook all meat and fish thoroughly, even beef. You can never eliminate all risk, but you can take common sense measures.
That is just plain silly. Of course, it doesn't... you think chewing thoroughly would protect you? Whether the slug is alive or not makes no difference. This has nothing to do with the rat lungworm that it passes on to you.
https://health.hawaii.gov/docd/disease_listing/rat-lungworm-angiostrongyliasis/
“That is just plain silly. Of course, it doesn’t...”
Did you even bother to read that link or any authoritative link on this? Explain to everyone how dead larvae cause harm to a person? DO NOT just keep repeating empty phrases like “Well of course it does...”
I tend to get organic produce unless it’s from Mexico. I will have to rethink things.
Especially when you use raw manure, sludge and waste on plants to be used for human consumption without composting and try to call it “organic.”
Many “natural fertilizer” farmers know that you have to compost the fertilizer for 1 year prior to tilling into the field. This allows time for the bio-mass heat effect to kill off the microbes.
Isn’t that one of the problems that Chipotle had?
I am not sure how to even address your comment. Rinsing off a slug with water or even hydrogen peroxide that contains the parasite growing inside of it does not make it safe to eat. Even if it were to kill the slug; it is unlikely that it would kill the parasite. To do that you would likely have to boil it. In the article that I linked to they were not even sure if the slug tracks might still be able to transmit the parasite. Washing those off would likely make the leafy vegetable safe to eat, but would you really want to take that chance?
I retired as the senior Hazmat officer on my shift and know a tiny bit about biohazards.
Same here.
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