Tossing triple-washed spinach into a weeknight pasta recipe or utilizing bagged lettuce as the bottom to your lunch salad makes meal prep much more handy. However with a number of current remembers linked to those sorts of merchandise, I discovered myself questioning if they are surely fit for human consumption with out rinsing. Simply this previous spring, for instance, an organization in Georgia pulled salad kits attributable to Listeria considerations, and final summer time, mixes in Minnesota had been recalled for a similar purpose. So I made a decision to ask meals security specialists their ideas: Does washing them your self add a further layer of safety in opposition to sickness? Or is it a waste of time? Right here’s what I discovered.

First, “triple-washed,” “ready-to-eat, ” and “no washing needed” salad mixes are precisely what they sound like: Greens which are cleaned earlier than packaging, that means you may (supposedly!) dig into them safely straight from the bag. Extra particularly, these phrases describe any sort of produce that’s undergone a fancy business rinsing course of, Ghaida Havern, MS, a meals security specialist at Michigan State College Extension, tells SELF. Consider the software like a big, industrial model of a salad spinner that lightly cleans and dries the produce, Martin Bucknavage, MS, a meals security specialist at Pennsylvania State College Extension, tells SELF. This methodology of rinsing works to take away germs, and goes above and past what you’d have the ability to do at house, in keeping with the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention (CDC).

All ready-to-eat produce is rinsed in services that comply with Good Manufacturing Practices and a Meals Security Plan. These pointers, which fall below the umbrella of the US Meals and Drug Administration (FDA), advise companies to implement proactive protecting measures—like sanitizing wash water or guaranteeing the gear is clear—to cut back the probabilities of foodborne sickness, Bucknavage says.

That is necessary as a result of produce can include germs that may make you sick. In accordance with a report from the Interagency Meals Security Analytics Collaboration, 58% of E. coli. infections in 2020 got here from vegetable row crops, which embody leafy greens. Diseases from these bugs, in addition to from different frequent contaminants like Salmonella or Listeria, may cause diarrhea, nausea, and vomiting.

It’s affordable to need to keep away from this, and chances are you’ll assume that rinsing all the pieces once more at house is the answer. However Havern says the economic washing course of is sufficient to preserve you secure. Not solely does she assume it’s pointless to scrub her pre-washed greens, however she additionally cautions that doing so can truly be a riskier transfer.

“Don’t rinse leafy greens labeled prewashed, triple-washed, or ready-to-eat as a result of you’ll threat the prospect of recontamination out of your kitchen,” Halvern says. The opposite specialists who spoke to SELF echo this recommendation, which additionally strains up with the CDC’s steering: By cleansing them once more, you could be doing extra hurt than good.

For instance, for those who wash your ready-to-eat greens within the basin of your sink with out cleansing it first, micro organism like E. coli or Salmonella can switch from a grimy slicing board you used for uncooked hen to the produce, finally making you in poor health.