Many people are aware salmonella can lurk in chicken, but did you know the bacteria have also been found in onions and peaches?
Those are some of the surprising reminders in the list of foods linked to the most serious recalls and outbreaks in the U.S.
Compiled by Consumer Reports, the results, published Thursday, focus on bacterial contamination and provide a snapshot of foodborne illness that sickened thousands of people and left 25 dead in recent years.
Still, Americans don’t have to be paranoid about adding these items to their grocery carts, says James Rogers, director of food safety research and testing at Consumer Reports. The organization believes the U.S. has one of the best food safety systems in the world, he adds.
“But it is really important that consumers know the risks that they’re facing when they buy and consume food, and learn how to prepare it properly,” Rogers tells TODAY.com.
“You can reduce your exposure to foodborne illness. It just takes an informed and aware consumer.”
To identify the most serious food recalls and outbreaks from 2017 through 2022, Consumer Reports analyzed data from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Department of Agriculture.
CR says it ranked the recalls based on how many people died or became sick, how widespread the outbreaks were, how many times a food was recalled, and the amount of food recalled.
Leafy greens
Recalled products: Romaine lettuce and bagged salads
Contaminated irrigation water has led to E. coli outbreaks, while listeria bacteria — which can be found in moist environments, soil and water, and can survive and grow under refrigeration — has also led to recalls.
Since people eat lettuce and salad greens raw, there’s no opportunity for heat to kill the germs. In fact, outbreaks traced to leafy greens were responsible for the most deaths in the Consumer Reports analysis.
How to stay safe: CR recommends buying whole-head lettuce instead of bagged lettuce and removing the outer leaves. “The outside leaves are exposed to the environment while they’re being grown, so any dirt, bacteria, animal waste that might get blown onto the lettuce will be on the outside leaves,” Rogers says. “The inner leaves tend to have less bacteria.”
Hydroponic- or greenhouse-grown veggies are protected from being in contact with dirt or animal droppings, he adds. Greens you can cook such as kale, collard greens or Swiss chard, are safer than raw ones.
Cheeses and deli meat
Recalled products: Sausage, salami, ham, lunch meats, sliced cheeses, soft cheeses including brie and queso fresco
Here, listeria strikes again. Besides growing at cold temperatures in the fridge, it can easily spread among food on deli countertops, deli slicers, surfaces and hands, according to the CDC. The disease it causes, listeriosis, is most likely to sicken pregnant women and their babies, people who are 65 or older, and those with weakened immune systems, the agency warns.
How to stay safe: Buy prepackaged cold cuts and cheeses rather than having them sliced at the deli counter. That minimizes your exposure to food that’s frequently handled. Plus, each deli has its own sanitation program, which may be better in some delis than others, Rogers says. Sanitation may be more consistent at factories that produce prepackaged deli meats or cheeses, he adds.
People in high-risk groups should avoid soft cheeses such as brie and camembert because their high moisture, low salt content, and low acidity support the growth of listeria, the CDC warned.
Ground beef
Contamination with E. coli and salmonella has sickened hundreds of people and led to millions of pounds of ground beef to be recalled, according to the analysis.
How to stay safe: To keep any germs in the meat from spreading, CR recommends putting packages of ground beef in separate disposable bags at the grocery store. Wash your hands in hot soapy water after handling meat and make sure it’s cooked all the way through.
Onions
Red, sweet, yellow and white onions have all been recalled because of salmonella, potentially due to contaminated irrigation water.
How to stay safe: Cooking onions kills the bacteria. CR recommends avoiding buying bruised onions because bacteria are more likely to enter damaged produce.
Chicken and turkey
The culprit here is salmonella. About 1 in every 25 packages of chicken at the grocery store is contaminated with salmonella, the CDC warns. When Consumer Reports tested chicken in 2022, it found salmonella in 23 of the 75 samples it checked. Defeathering poultry, and the handling required to cut birds into parts can spread the bacteria, the organization notes.
How to stay safe: The precautions are similar to ground beef. Put packages of chicken or turkey in separate, disposable bags at the grocery store to keep raw juices from getting onto other foods. Wash your hands in hot soapy water after handling the meat and make sure it’s cooked all the way through. Experts recommend against rinsing chicken because that can splatter salmonella around the kitchen.
Papayas, peaches and melons
Recalled products: Precut cantaloupe, honeydew and watermelon; whole cantaloupes, papayas and peaches
Salmonella strikes again, but for different reasons. When it comes to peaches, the probe into a 2020 recall found the orchards were near animal feedlots, with wind possibly depositing dust contaminated with the bacteria onto the fruiting trees.
For melons, it’s the cutting into cubes that can transfer bacteria on the surface of the fruit into its flesh, Rogers says.
In the case of papayas, those imported from Mexico have been the subject of outbreaks.
How to stay safe: Instead of buying pre-cut fruit, buy the whole melon — avoiding bruised and damaged fruits — wash it, use a soft brush to scrub the surface, and then cut it up yourself, Rogers advises.
Flour
Recalled products: Uncooked flour; cookie, brownie, cake and pancake mixes; and premade cake batter.
Grain can be contaminated in the field or while it's processed, so the CDC has long warned people not to taste cake batter or eat raw dough because flour isn't treated to kill germs that cause food poisoning like E. coli and salmonella. They're only killed only when flour is baked or cooked.
How to stay safe: Don't eat raw dough and wash your hands after handling raw flour.
