Vinegar can help home cooks battle bacteria on leafy greens
April 16, 2018 from FoodSafetyNews
The author of this article, Carl Custer did a literature review to see if "if anyone had published on the bactericidal effect of vinegar on lettuce."
- First: "Before treating your lettuce or other fresh greens, remove broken or bruised leaves. The breaks enable pathogens to enter the cells and thus, become protected from the lethal effect of the vinegar or whatever antimicrobial you use. Additionally, the liquid from broken or bruised leaves aids the multiplication of both good and bad bacteria associated with the produce (Takeuchi & Frank 2000, Brandl 2008)."
"Washing the leaves may reduce any unattached bacteria but has a poor effect on removing attached bacteria. There are many ways to sanitize or disinfect salad greens. Irradiation, cold plasma, electrolyzed water, and chlorine come to mind. But these are not readily available in most home kitchens. Thus, the purpose of this article: To review current science and offer practical recommendations to improve the safety of salads."
- Second: "Spoiler alert, vinegar kills pathogenic bacteria. Fans of the Law of Mass Action, will be happy that vinegar’s lethal effect is dependent on time, temperature, and the concentration of acetic acid (usually 6%). Balsamic vinegar, with its additional phenols is the cat’s pajamas of lethality."
- Third: "There’s plenty of science on the effect of vinegar. My conclusions: Vinegar is a useful household sanitizing agent for leafy greens and other produce." "Personally, I would douse the lettuce with plain white vinegar then finish chopping the other salad ingredients. Finally give the greens a quick water rinse, shake (or spin), then toss the remaining ingredients with your favorite creamy dressing. See the article for details."