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Comment by wumpus | Hacker News Reader

There are lots of places today in the 3rd world where you shouldn't eat uncooked food (salad).

No need to go to the 3rd world - there are plenty of places where eating raw lettuce is a bad idea. I went to a lecture once that went into detail on the lengths that the USA goes to to ensure our lettuce is safe to eat. The conclusion was that stuck with me was that the first time your lettuce leaves refrigeration is on the drive home, the speaker suggested that you bring a cooler in the trunk of your car to ensure proper cold chain management for leafy green purchases.

You can see some of the considerations in "Commodity Specific Food Safety Guidelines for the Lettuce and Leafy Greens Supply Chain" [1]

[1] https://www.fda.gov/files/food/published/Commodity-Specific-...

Here in India, the leafy greens are eaten very fresh, usually on the day of the harvest.

And, we don't usually buy greens from the supermarket where chikitshadhina even have a chance of maintainance, rather, we prefer to buy from Street side vendors.

What is "chikitshadhina"?

https://translate.google.com/?sl=auto&tl=en&text=cikits%20ad...

I don't understand what he meant though.

Indeed. Directly from the CDC[1]:

> Sometimes, raw fruits and vegetables contain harmful germs that can make you and your family sick, such as Salmonella, E. coli, and Listeria. CDC estimates that germs on fresh produce cause a large percentage of foodborne illnesses in the United States. The safest produce to eat is cooked; the next safest is washed.

How large of a percentage? About 45.9% of US food poisoning in the US is attributed to produce (of which 11.7% fruit-nuts, 34.2% vegetables), vs 47.8% to animals (of which 6.1% seafood, 13.8% dairy, 6.0% eggs, 22.0% meat-poultry)[2].

I suspect there's quite a bit of risk-compensating behavior at work here. We tend to hear a lot more about the dangers of raw meat, eggs and seafood than of raw vegetables, which probably makes people much more wary about them.

[2] https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/19/3/11-1866-t1

[1] https://www.cdc.gov/foodsafety/communication/steps-healthy-f...

I work for John Deere. One of my coworkers went to learn about lettuce production in the real world. He was in the field wearing gloves and a hair net for safety, and they were taking heads of lettuce off the plant and putting them directly into the plastic bag it would be sold from in the store. Then he looked up: wild birds were flying all over, and like bird do dropping poop behind. His conclusion: wash your lettuce.

(none of the above speaks for the company of course)

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