Your questions answered
WASHING PROCESS
Are Prepared Salads safe to eat?
Yes! The rigorous food safety and washing processes used ensure that prepared salads are safe, healthy and ‘ready to eat’.
Not only that, but prepared salads are an excellent way of helping people to achieve the recommended consumption of 5 portions of fruit and vegetables every day.
Why do you wash salads?
Salad crops are grown and harvested in fields and the very nature of this environment results in soil (and therefore naturally occurring bacteria) coming into contact with the leaves. We wash salads in a number of different ways to remove soil, insects, leaf debris and bacteria to ensure that they are safe. Spring water is used where suppliers have access to abundant supplies of pure water which can be diverted through their wash systems in a single pass. For most suppliers operating in areas where water needs to be conserved this is not an option so various water cleaning alternatives are used, such as natural fruit extracts used for many years in washing organic prepared salads.
For organics, we wash the salad leaves in natural fruit extracts in order to comply with the requirements of organic approval bodies, such as the Soil Association.
Don’t you use chlorine?
Yes. A number of processors treat water with small amounts of chlorine.
Is this washing process safe?
The controlled use of chlorine is universally recognised as a safe and effective sanitiser by the Food Standards Authority and the World Health Organisation and is used for many applications including the supply of drinking water.
The Industry has taken advice from experts closely involved in the development of the World Health Organisation guidelines who confirmed that the chlorine used posed no risk to health. The group commissioned a range of in depth scientific tests on a number of different salad bags. In the vast majority of cases there were no detectable chlorine residues; where there were residues they could only be measured in “parts per billion” and were substantially below health guideline limits – in fact a serving of salad contains less chlorine than is permissible in a single glass of tap water. The outcome of these tests clearly demonstrates that there is no cause for concern.
So, do I need to wash the salads again before I eat them?
We would stress that if a salad pack says “washed and ready to eat,” consumers really do not need to wash the salad leaves again.
The washing process is far more thorough than can be consistently achieved at home and additional washing is not required.
PACKAGING
I’ve heard that salad bags are packed in modified atmosphere packaging. Is this true?
Yes. In just 20% of salad bags the air is modified, with the oxygen reduced to help slow down the respiration of salad leaves and prevent discolouration. Oxygen is reduced from 21% to 5-10% and nitrogen is increased from 78% to 90-95%. Only certain leaves such as cos and iceberg benefit from this.
Are nutrient levels affected by modified atmosphere packaging?
Italian research published in 2004 resulted in news stories about the loss of nutrient levels in salads, claiming that this was due to the MAP process (Modified Atmosphere Packaging). However, the study compared four-day-old salad packs with freshly picked whole head lettuce. Not surprisingly the fresher lettuce was shown to contain more vitamins. The nutritional decline had nothing to do with modified atmosphere ….as we all know, the fresher the food, the higher the vitamin content.
Subsequent news stories have gone on to say that consumers are being misled by salads packed in MAP, because they look fresher and younger than they really are. However, the natural processes responsible for visual and nutritional deterioration are the same. Consequently, a salad that looks fresh is fresh.
Recent work commissioned by UK salad bag producers confirms that the correct use of modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) has no detrimental effect on the nutritional content of salad leaves.
TRANSPORTATION
How fresh are the salads in bags?
By volume, over 95% of salads used for pre-packed salads are sourced from the UK and Continental Europe. The two main growing areas are the UK in the summer and selected areas of Spain in the winter.
Normally, salads grown in the UK are harvested, packed and on the supermarket shelf within 24 to 72 hours. If they come from Europe, it can take between 3 to 7 days. It is in the industry’s interest to use local crops in order to have fresher products and most packing factories are situated near to key growing areas.
Food Miles – how far do the salad leaves travel to the supermarket?
Fields, in which the leaves for bagged salads are grown, are located as close to the factories as possible, so that harvested crops only need to be transported a minimal distance before being packed. When a particular leaf is out of season, this is sourced from the next available place – usually within Europe.
In exceptional circumstances, a small amount of salads may come from outside of Europe (USA or Africa). In this case none of the main UK salad bag producers charter aircraft for this purpose; the salad leaf is brought into the country on scheduled passenger flights. Salad is a light, relatively weightless product and transporting it in this manner has a minimal environmental impact. Importing in this way (and only when absolutely necessary) is far less environmentally damaging than trying to sustain heated, lit greenhouses throughout the coldest parts of the year.
PESTICIDES
Should I be worried about pesticides?
Pesticide use has been substantially reduced on salad farms over the years and we are now using much more environmentally friendly products. The salad industry’s own controls are far more stringent than those laid down by legislation.
Today many pesticides are target-specific (designed to tackle a specific problem or insect) with little or no environmental impact. Crops are intensively monitored for signs of pests and disease and sprays are only applied where necessary in response to an identified problem. Today’s sophisticated pesticides break down very quickly, sometimes within hours.
Other methods used include the planting of specific crops to attract pests away from the salad crops, the use of natural products such as garlic sprays to repel insects and the use of vacuum units to remove insects ahead of harvest.
With baby salad leaves, the growing cycle is so short - sometimes just 24 days - that many crops are never sprayed at all.
Farmers exercise strict crop rotations and are also continually testing different varieties of salad leaves for their disease resistance in order to minimise the use of pesticides.
The effect of these various changes in farming practice can clearly be seen in the increase in biodiversity within cropping areas. In any field of lettuce today you will find a wide range of predators such as ladybirds, ground beetles, lacewings, as well as frogs and toads. Amphibians are highly sensitive to toxins, so their presence in salad crops is a good indication of how benign these environments can be.
Natural pest control is actively encouraged and many farmers set aside “wildlife corridors” around their fields.
What about Nitrates?
In the bagged salad industry, we deliberately restrict the use of nitrate fertilisers because it makes the salad leaf grow too quickly and will lead to a weaker cell structure and poor quality. UK salad bag producers maintain good agricultural practice and adheres to standards that exceed the UK’s legislation surrounding the use of nitrates.
FOREIGN LABOUR
What is the truth about Foreign Labour?
The pre-packed salads market is seasonal and orders can fluctuate dramatically, even on a daily basis. The industry is labour intensive as produce is often hand prepared (e.g. cut and sorted by hand) to maintain high quality levels. Additional labour is brought in at peak times to help cater for the impact of sudden increases in consumer demand.
Wherever possible we will always try to source employees local to the area. Our labour force is extremely important to us, whether it’s our own or third party employees, and we take our duty of care very seriously.
In instances where we need to use agencies, the employment agencies used must provide guarantees that the people they supply are bona fide and that legal employment practices are adhered to. However, over and above this, the industry carries out its own checks (e.g. to ensure that minimum wages are paid) and there are many examples where UK salad bag producers have worked proactively with immigration officers in this area (e.g. to train employees to spot false documents).
