Re: what's going on at ARS?

**"* D* <m*@gmail.com>**

Margaret - Can you give us the links to those stories? Thanks, Martha

On Mon, Jul 7, 2008 at 8:25 AM, margaret lauterbach <melauter@earthlink.net>
wrote:

> A few days ago, i received a post from ARS-USDA saying "In
> experiments, the scientists exposed romaine lettuce leaves to E. coli
> O157:H7 and found that, after 24 hours, populations of the microbe
> were 10 times higher on young leaves than on middle ones....One
> explanation: The young leaves offer more nutrition for E. coli. They
> exude about three times more nitrogen and about 1.5 times more carbon
> than do the middle leaves...."  I wrote to them complaining that in
> my experience, the old leaves are the outside ones, the young leaves
> ARE the middle ones.  I've not received a response, but I think
> they're dead wrong.
>
> Now this morning, another ARS report, on testing "combining the use
> of several sanitizers, including the new formulation, with ultrasound
> as a means to enhance the efficiency of sanitization (of leafy
> produce) prior to bagging. They conducted a study to determine the
> effects of selected sanitizer ingredients, with or without
> ultrasound, on the reduction of Escherichia coli populations on
> spinach. ...The highest E. coli reduction was 4.5 logs--meaning the
> bacteria decreased from about 300,000 colony-forming units to less
> than 10. This reduction was achieved through combining the newly
> formulated wash solution treatment with ultrasound treatment."
>
> Do these people not know where the deadly e.coli bacteria come
> from?  It comes from the gut of grain-fed large animals, cattle,
> especially.  Are we to expect our leafy greens to be so regularly
> contaminated by e.coli that they have to be cleaned in a special
> way?  I read the spinach outbreak was eventually chalked up to a wild
> boar's having run through a feedlot then a spinach patch.  Does that
> happen a lot?
>
> I think, as garden writers, it is incumbent on us to critique these
> reports for the public.  The public has a right to know what these
> government institutions are doing with tax money.  Moreover, "less
> than" 10?  What happened to "fewer"?  Margaret Lauterbach
>
>
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