I know that we have not had the best summer ever this year when it comes to sunshine & warmth but back in June, a couple of grow bags in my back garden were bulging over with cut and come again salad leaf. The satisfying feeling picking part of your daily foodstuffs is bloody fantastic, also a calming experience and the biggest thing of all is you know exactly where it has been and what has happened to it “AND IT TASTED LIKE SALAD LEAF”.

MODIFIED ATMOSPHERE PACKAGING: ( M.A.P. )

Modern -atmosphere packaging can increase the shelf life by up to 50%

In MAP, the oxygen is reduced from 21% to 3% and Carbon Dioxide is correspondingly raised, slowing visible signs of deteriation.

A good wash:

The Chlorine levels used to wash (MAP) salads are around a mega 20 times more than the chlorine levels used to keep your local swimming pool clean. It is therefore no surprise that a (MAP) salad has very little taste and can stay in your fridge for days seemingly with no signs of dying off.

A study on anti oxidents in lettuce was carried out by the Rome Institute for Food and Nutrition. Lettuce that was harvested that day was given to volunteers to eatthat day and the others got to sample lettuce from the same source that had been MAP packaged for 3 days.

Blood samples were then analysed from the 2 groups.

The volunteers who ate the fresh salad showed an increase in the bloods anti-oxidant levels.

The volunteers who were given the MAP salads showed no inrease in anti-oxident levels after eating the lettuce.

Bagged salads like this did not exist until 1992.

Between 1992 and 2000 nearly 6 % of food poisoning outbreaks were linked to pre-washed salads and prepared fruits and vegetables.

Two serious outbreaks of Salmonella poisoning in the UK were traced back to lettuce.

Clean obsession:

Over the last 10 - 15 years people seem to be squirting anti-bacterials left, right and centre.

During over a decade in the catering industry, I have many times witnesses managers and owners making a big point of instucting that antibac’s are used to clean down at the end of a shift and squirted on worksurfaces at pretty much any opportunity. Most of the cleaning fluids & spray’s that I was asked to use in commercial kitchens restricted breathing, hurt the chest and stung the eye’s. Isn’t that more harmful than what might happen if you just cleaned with soaps and hot water ?

We are not meant to live in a clinically spotless environment.

A little dirt can be a good thing.