How salmonella gets into plant-based products!

Every child knows that caution is advised with raw eggs and chicken meat. Salmonella can quickly spread on these foods and cause gastrointestinal illnesses if eaten raw. It is therefore surprising that a plant-based sesame puree of all things is now being recalled due to salmonella.

The manufacturer cannot rule out the possibility that the product is affected by "salmonella contamination". The media release issued by the major distributor Migros on January 28 did not refer to an egg or poultry product, but to sesame puree. This is astonishing, as we have been learning since home economics lessons that there is a risk of salmonella in eggs and poultry in particular.

From the gut to vegetables.
In fact, plant-based products can also be contaminated with salmonella. Otmar Deflorin, cantonal chemist in Bern, explains how this can happen: "Salmonella are bacteria that occur in the human or animal intestine. These bacteria can be transferred to fruit and vegetables via fertilizer or irrigation water."
The difference to eggs or chicken meat is that the bacteria spread on the surface of vegetables and fruit. "The quantities are therefore generally much lower than with eggs and chicken, where the bacteria multiply in the product." Illnesses caused by eating contaminated vegetables are therefore rare.

Vinegar as a salmonella killer.
Even if there is no great danger from fruit and vegetables, there are still a few hygiene tips to follow. For example, you should never prepare vegetables on the same cutting board as the raw chicken meat. This applies in particular to vegetables that you want to eat raw. If you heat food, this kills the salmonella.

But it's not just heat that kills the bacteria, they also don't tolerate acid. "With lettuce, for example, the salad dressing with the vinegar ensures that the salmonella is killed," says cantonal chemist Deflorin.

Source: www.srf.ch/konsum