During my teaching days, I taught a course in infectious disease for several years. As part of our lab sessions, we did some sampling to test some common areas in the cafeteria as well as some local food samples from a few local restaurants (salads) and other produce from the supermarket.
As a result in our lab, we found E.coli growing in the ice tea spouts in the cafeteria and growing in the alfalfa sprouts at the local supermarket. The presence of these types of bacteria suggest fecal contamination – need I say more? Raw sprout contamination is not new. Raw sprouts are not recommended for pregnant women, those with compromised immune systems, or the elderly. Keep in mind that the species of E. coli can range from “friendly bacteria” to dangerous pathogens (E. coli 157:H7.)
FOOD, FACTS and FADS 