Ideal Bite

Was last month's spinach recall a blessing in disguise?

10.25.2006

Submitted by idealbite on Wed, 10/25/2006 - 5:00pm.

The Bite:

The recall called into question the safety of bagged lettuce - and got us thinking about the eco-impact of the bags. We LOVE shortcuts, so it's hard for us to say this, (gulp) but maybe it's time to start tearing our own lettuce again...

The Benefits:

Studies show bagged lettuce lettuce may not be safer. And even organic bagged lettuce often goes through a chlorine rinse (yum...) to kill bacteria, whereas whole organic greens do not. Plus, the outer leaves of unprocessed lettuce heads naturally keep out bacteria.
Less landfill. 6 million bags of salad are sold every day in the US. At the risk of sounding a little crunchy, a lettuce head can be placed in your cart bag-free, since you'll tear off the outer leaves anyway and you can always rinse off your spinach.
Save big. A regular head of lettuce will cost you less than 1/2 the price of a bagged salad.

Personally Speaking:

Jen loves the lettuce at the Bozeman Food Co-op, mixing a few types together and then seeing how fast she can spin the salad spinner while cleaning it. Toshio, quite possibly the laziest Biter ever, always buys bagged baby spinach, but tries to make up for it by never buying plastic baggies. C+ for effort, Tosh...

Wanna Try:

Oxo Salad Spinner- just rip and spin... ($25).
Bambu Cutting Board - get reacquainted with chopping your lettuce using this sustainable cutting board ($15).
Organic Cotton Kitchen Towels - 100% organic. After you clean your lettuce, let it dry on one of these and forego the paper towel waste ($9).
Ideal Bite's Eat Local Tip - there's no question that in-season and local veggies taste the best.
Ideal Bite's Edible Flowers Tip - dress up your salad with flowers, and it'll really look "good enough to eat."

Expert Panelist:

Cynthia Sass

Cocktail Fact

Last year, scientists discovered that lettuce is a mild aphrodisiac, something that ancient Egyptians knew long ago - their god of sexuality, Min, is often pictured with wild greens.

Bang For The Bite

If 10,000 Biters wash and rip their own lettuce (we know, it's not gonna be easy), we'll keep 74,000 plastic bags out of the landfill each year.

4 comments

Email This

Tips Like This

Anonymous on March 04, 2009 at 05:40 AM 1

Any suggestions on an alternative to the plastic vegetable bags at the grocery store when buying in bulk? Thx.

Anonymous on March 05, 2009 at 03:41 AM 2

I just found one of those mesh bags used for laundry and have added it to my cloth bag o' bags for shopping...planning on using it for produce.

Kim on March 16, 2009 at 11:33 AM 3

Rather than laying your unbagged vegetable directly in the cart you can place them in the reusable bags you brought to take your groceries home in :)

Susan on April 17, 2009 at 05:39 AM 4

I recycle my produce bags: simply fold and place (or stuff) them in my reusable grocery bag to take them to the store with me. Ditto on the plastic containers for the fabulous, freshly made hummus and tabbouli at our local store.

Post new comment

target='_blank'>

border='0' alt='' />

Was last month's spinach recall a blessing in disguise?

Cocktail Fact

Bang For The Bite

Tips Like This

Other Related Content

Post new comment

Sign Up