Monday May 7, 2001

Problems at the Salad Bar

You're a busy person with no time for a fancy meal. So you swing by the salad bar for some crisp greens or a piping hot dish. That may be a dangerous decision.

Food chemist Ron Schnitzer says, "Eat at salad bars and there's a good chance you're downing some bad bacteria bugs with your meal.

"Most of the bacteria that we are finding in salad bars are contamination types of bacteria. "Those that are either coming from the nasal cavity or infection or cut on someone's hands."

Extra Stats

Three main causes of contamination Time Temperature Humidity Ways to find a cleaner salad bar: Go earlier in the day, before the lunch rush. Look for multiple serving spoons Look for gloves on the hands of those preparing the food. Look for trays that are not stacked up and wet.

We took to the streets of Manhattan where you can't toss a salad without hitting one of these food bars. Followed by an undercover camera, we trudged the town filling our cooler with twenty-four food items from six different salad bars.
Our lab man found bacteria counts way over established health standards in all samples. Pathogens like salmonella, listeria and campylobacter. Translation? Think food poisoning.

And it gets worse: E. coli. We found the infamous filth in four food items at three self-service buffets and it can only come from one place. Ron says, "E. coli comes from fecal contamination."

With high germ counts on nearly every one of our food samples and E. coli too common, are you still in a hurry to dig into that communal food counter?