Does your salad have wood?


Apparently, it can.

At least it did for one fellow vegetarian blogger.

Let me explain (and do read on if you ever buy bagged salad from the grocery store).

It seems the ever lovely Lesley from LesleyEats was enjoying a nice salad. Specifically, the Earthbound Farms Pre-washed Organic Baby Romaine in the 5 ounce package. She dug in and found “… a two-inch long shard of wood.” More digging and she found “… another piece, about an inch long.”

Now, three things you should know …

Thing #1
Good-hearted Lesley called the company to let them know. All they did was tell her they would perform a “quality assurance check” and send her some coupons (which I really doubt she will use any time soon). So much for their wonderful sounding promise that their “… commitment to the health of those who enjoy our harvest is stronger than ever.“

Thing #2
They have at least one reported problem on their hands. But, as far as I can tell, there is no warning or mention of the incident on their site. They do make a point of stating “Non-leafy items like roots and twigs are ejected by state-of-the-art optical sorters.” But they don’t bother to warn you that the system can fail. So it makes me wonder how many other people this, or something like it, has happened to.

Thing #3
When I mentioned this to my husband he said an associate found a twig in her take-out salad. Good heavens! Has this happened to everyone but me?

So, I’m almost afraid to ask, but have you ever found anything in your salad that should not be there? Let us know.

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{ 4 Comments }

Comments

4 Responses to “Does your salad have wood?”

  1. Lesley

    A twig in her salad? I’d actually be less turned off by a twig. What was in my salad looked like it came from a crate…which is not terribly natural.

    I’ve never read the packaging, but it never occurred to me there’d be anything in that container of lettuce except lettuce. And that since it was pre-washed, I could eat it without thinking. That’s pretty naive of me, though. But I bet a lot of people think that.

    I will say that the woman I spoke to was very nice and did apologize for the issue. Other than post warnings on their site (which wouldn’t be good for business), I’m not sure what else they could do. I assume that if the inquiry they’re making into this batch reveals something went horribly wrong, they’ll notify the public, but that will have been way too late. So I hope my post (and this one) makes it known that you should still take care in inspecting your food before you eat it.

    Incidentally, there are much worse things that could have been in my salad. Years ago, I worked in a restaurant that served turnip greens (cooked). A woman called me over to alert me that there was a grasshopper that had apparently been processed, frozen, cooked and served with her greens (it was at this point, the same color as the food). It was hardly noticeable, but alarming nonetheless. When asked if she wanted to speak to a manager, she just said, “No, if you don’t mind, I’d just prefer a bowl of greens without a grasshopper.” Whoa.

  2. Tamryn Hennessy

    We all knew there MUST be a price to pay for that fabulously easy instant salad… Should we run out and stock up on 70s salad spinners?

  3. Jennywenny

    I guess I stopped buying bagged salad when I realised what a ridiculous waste of money it is. I think I read it in Marion Nestle’s what to eat, the actual price comparison.

    I just buy heads of lettuce and wash them in a giant bowl of water and spin them in a spinner. This is very important when they come from my csa as we get all kinds of interesting creatures!

  4. Tamryn Hennessy

    We all knew there MUST be a price to pay for that fabulously easy instant salad… Should we run out and stock up on 70s salad spinners?

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