Leafy Vegetables

Key takeaways

The restaurant industry may need to develop written guidelines with pictures to explain when shipments of leafy greensA should be rejected. This can then be used to make sure restaurants consistently reject bad shipments of leafy greens.

Restaurants are also encouraged to train food workers on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) safe handling advice for leafy greens. This is especially important for restaurants that get shipments of leafy greens that are already cut.

Why this is important

In recent years, foodborne illness outbreaks have been linked with fresh produce that is eaten without cooking. Such produce includes various leafy vegetables like lettuce, spinach, and cabbage. These vegetables are called leafy greens, and they can be unprocessed, ready to serve, or prepackaged.

We do not know much about how restaurants buy and receive leafy greens. If we learn more about these things, we can suggest ways to improve them, which will lessen the chances of people getting sick.

FDA advises restaurants on how to stop the spread of germs on leafy greens. FDA's advice is to:

• Not use leafy greens that show rot or damage
• Refrigerate cut leafy greens at 41°F or less
• Provide enough records to find out where leafy greens came from (traceback investigationB)

What we learned

We found that many restaurants already use safe ways to handle leafy greens in restaurants.

Over half of the restaurants buy leafy greens from a company that sells a variety of food products to restaurants, schools, hospitals, and hotels. (This is called a general distributor.C) They also buy them from:

• Companies that sell large amounts of fresh fruits and vegetables (wholesale produce marketsD)
• Grocery stores
• Farmers markets or farms

Two of three managers said their restaurant had rejected a leafy greens shipment. They rejected shipments because the leafy greens:

• Looked bad (wilted, moldy, dirty, or rotten)
• Smelled or tasted bad
• Were wet or dripping
• Were not in the right temperature range
• Were missing a required product label

Over half of all leafy greens shipments were not delivered at the right temperature (41°F or below). Cut leafy greens shipped and stored above 41°F could support growth of germs that lead to foodborne illness.

Almost all of the managers we talked to said their restaurants keep purchase records of leafy greens. With complete records we can find out where contaminated leafy greens came from.

More information

Journal article this plain language summary is based on

More practice summaries and investigation summaries in plain language

FDA industry guidance and 2018 draft industry guidance on minimizing microbial food safety hazards in produce