I didn’t see another thread on this topic (sorry if I missed it), but I have a quick question about what’s going on in Europe atm. I know that a lot of people are sick and even dying, but couldn’t they just cook the vegetables in the mean time while they are looking for the source of the problem? I know it won’t help those who are already infected, but I hear stories of food rotting in the fields or sitting and rotting in warehouses, and hundreds of millions of Euros lost due to all of this, and was just wondering…does regular cooking not kill this particular virulent strain of E. coli? Could they irradiate the veggies to kill the E. coli on them?
From what I’ve read this particular strain of E. coli is so deadly because it produces toxins that attack the kidneys. In most cases cooking the food would kill the E. coli, but the toxins they produced may be heat-stable and remain fully in the prepared food.
Irradiating lettuce (or sprouts) is an epic fail.
Cukes and tomatoes can be irradiated. Seems like the cukes could be a candidate for pickling. I don’t understand why the tomatoes couldn’t be processed and canned, except for an ick factor. Crazyhorse, the toxins aren’t preformed: they are made as part of the infective process.