Lettuce, batavia, lamb’s lettuce, arugula… More than half of salad lovers buy their leaves in sachets. In Here we are on RTL, Flavie Flament says that when she eats a salad bought in a bag, she feels like she is “eating a salad with chemicals”.
“We must not exaggerate, but indeed they are treated with chlorinated water in small quantities, so normally there is almost nothing left no leftovers in the salad” when it is marketed, explains Patricia Chairopoulos, journalist at 60 million consumers.
“With chlorinated water, the micro-organisms are well washed away, so from a health point of view, there is no problem (…) and from a nutritional point of view it’s not so bad. Scientists have confirmed it: globally the vitamins for example B9, K and the fibers are preserved. The only small problemit is vitamin C which is extremely fragile and as there are many stages of preparation, cutting, washing, it can be destroyed during the manufacturing process”, explains Patricia Chairopoulos.
Should we wash the lettuces sold in sachets?
You just bought your salad in a bag but you don’t know if you should wash it, here’s how to help you. “The ready-made salads, have already been washed and stored in refrigerated cabinets. So normally you don’t need to wash them. Then it can be not bad to rinse them to remove any chlorine residues”, continues Patricia Chairopoulos. “You lose nothing by washing them a little bit more”, she summarizes.
“Overall, the salads sold in sachets are grown in France for two thirds except in winter (…) they come rather from Italy or Spain, except lamb’s lettuce which is a winter salad. This is a good thing because the origin is not necessarily marked on the package”, she specifies. These are “of the salads neatwith specific specifications and which are obviously not not damaged”, continues Patricia Chairopoulos.
How long can they be kept?
These salads can be stored in sachets “8 days” after your purchase and once you have open the bag, keep them one or two days in the fridge “at 4 degrees ideally”. “Above all, you should not eat them if you see a brownish liquid at the bottom of the sachet, it is that there may be microorganisms that have developed”, warns Patricia Chairopoulos.
Finally, Patricia Chairopoulos insists on the fact that these salads sold in sachets are “extremely practical, but there is a price and it is at less twice as expensive, or even more, than a fresh salad”. The advantage of buying a salad in a bag is “practical, fast and it makes a vegetable quickly, quickly prepared”, concedes Patricia Chairopoulos.
.
