Just about every day, I eat a salad for lunch. Because I am lazy and picky, I buy the pre-washed organic baby lettuce (I prefer romaine), usually from Earthbound Farms. I stuck by them during the e. Coli scare last year because they've treated me well.
But today, I found wood in my salad. Luckily, a fork won't stab into a two-inch long shard of wood, so it flew out onto my desk. Digging into the bowl yielded another piece, about an inch long.
That is incredibly uncool. I'm really glad I didn't manage to eat those pieces of wood. It would have been really embarrassing to choke and/or die while I'm at work. Love my co-workers and all, but they're not the last people I want to see.
Guessing I'm'a gonna make a phone call when I get home.
FYI to those who might have some of this at home--it's the Earthbound Farms Pre-washed Organic Baby Romaine in the 5 ounce package, expiration date July 2 (just bought it Sunday at Harris Teeter and wasn't happy about the short expiration, but I prefer the Romaine, y'know).
And I'm sure it's probably psychosomatic, but now my throat feels funny like I may have swallowed some. I sure hope I didn't because that would not be pleasant. Not sure my stomach can process wood.
UPDATE: I called this morning with all the package information to let them know and they're going to do a "quality assurance check." Not sure what that means, but now they know. They said they'll send some product coupons, but I gotta be honest, it might be a while before I'll have the hankering for a salad. I had to scrounge together a lunch today of an Amy's pizza pocket, some yogurt, and grapes. I hope my taste for salad returns soon.
7 comments:
High in fiber! Not a bug, a feature! :)
Oh sh**! i eat salads as well and buy the same kind of lettuce. I'm going to search mine right now. Thanks for the PSA
Fiber...true, but I imagine that would be hard on the ol' tummy. Not to mention other parts of the digestive tract.
Nicole--I have eaten countless containers of prewashed organic salad and this is the first time I've ever had an issue, but this has made me aware that the process is not infallible.
I find that pretty upsetting. So much so, in fact, that I have blogged about it: http://almostvegetarian.blogspot.com/2008/07/does-your-salad-have-wood.html
My fear is, how many other incidents of this sort happen that we never hear about?
Cheers.
Imagine that. Here you have a farm that ships tens of thousands of pounds of produce a week. In plastic sacks no less. Do you realize how many steps are involved in doing that? This company, while organic, (heh), is a massive machine based operation. See photo links. Be grateful you only got a hunk of wood. I could have been some metal shards from the tractor, conveyor, washer, or bag packer. Better yet how about a splash of hydraulic fluid from the tractors 3 point hitch when a hose gives way.
http://www.daylife.com/photo/07YeagR1ZSbTe
http://www.freshplaza.com/news_detail.asp?id=22218
Forget about dew kissed leaves floating from the field to gently land on your plate.
On the other hand, if you had purchased your organic produce locally from the Franklin or Nashville area markets, it is likely you would have fared better: The hunk of wood you would have found would have been from the basket the picker was holding while harvesting the produce.
BUT to quote:
"Because I am lazy and picky, I buy the pre-washed organic baby lettuce (I prefer romaine), usually from Earthbound Farms."
You reap what you sow.
Thanks, Anonymous for your not-terribly-helpful comment. I'm very well aware of the size of the Earthbound Farms operation. I really had no misperceptions of some gentle people hand-picking leaves just for me.
As for lazy, I meant that with regard to not growing my own. I could grow my own, but only if I installed an expensive greenhouse and irrigation system for my yard and kept up with it regularly. That's the only way to protect what I'd grow from the myriad wild animals in my neighborhood. But I hardly think that making the 50-mile round trip to the Franklin farmer's market is a much better plan. And I've been less-than-impressed with the selection of "home grown" (ha!) produce at the Nashville Farmer's Market. I saw very little local produce on my visits and nothing that indicated that anything was even close to organic.
Ideally, the produce stand where I buy most of my fresh produce would start carrying salad greens, but they're very delicate and not likely to be profitable for them, so that's why I continue to by the prepackaged greens. I do, however, use the plastic recyclable container packages, not the bags. Every little bit helps.
Ugh - not good! I found wood in my soup once from Cosi...not a pleasant find.
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