Latest news with #salad
The Sun
a day ago
- Health
- The Sun
Deadly brain-eating parasite is found in ‘contaminated' salad bags sold in UK supermarkets – 7 symptoms to watch out for
HEALTH warnings have been issued over salad bags due to potentially deadly contamination fears. The popular ready-to-eat product sold across UK supermarkets has been associated with a rise in food poisoning cases. 1 Research carried out by the journal Eurosurveillance highlighted the contamination fears reported across 10 European countries, including the UK. This came after over 4% of the leaves in salad samples, tested between October 2021 and September 2022, were found to be contaminated with toxoplasma gondii oocysts. "The parasite Toxoplasma gondii can cause severe disease in humans," the research said. "People can acquire the parasite by eating raw or undercooked infected meat or unwashed fruits or vegetables contaminated with the parasite. "We wanted to investigate T. gondii in commercial ready-to eat (RTE) salads in European countries to estimate the importance of these food products as sources of T. gondii." The bacteria, which can be passed on through contact with cat faeces, has been known to contaminate food and water. This makes salad that is washed or watered with dirty water a prime place for bacteria to grow. According to research cited by Science Alert, this bacteria "can seriously disrupt the brain function of intermediate hosts, potentially including humans". The National Institute of Health previously reported that half of the UK population show signs of past infection by the age of 50. They added that once acquired, these parasites remain in human tissues for life. 'Contaminated' children's cough syrup recalled nationwide over ingredient inside that could kill – parents must act now Health risks This can cause a problem later in life for people who have a weakened immune system, often a result cancer treatments or immunosuppressant drugs. The Food Standards Agency recommended the best action to take to combat this outbreak. "[Always] wash fruit and vegetables with water before you eat them to make sure that they are clean," the experts advised. "You should wash them under a running tap, or in a bowl of fresh water, making sure to rub their skin under the water." While toxoplasmosis is not usually serious and normally gets better on its own, the NHS highlighted that it can cause serious problems in certain situations. This includes if you get it while you're pregnant or have a weakened immune system . If you have a weakened immune system toxoplasmosis may cause problems with your eyes, brain, heart, or lungs. And if you experience more severe symptoms such as confusion, blurred vision, or slurred speech, you should also seek medical help. Positive samples across Europe Samples of the leaves were collected in the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Poland, Portugal, and Spain as well as the UK. Majority of the positive samples were collected in winter and packaged in the UK, France, Portugal, Spain, and Denmark. Scientists have urged for better control measures to help protect prevent infection. "This is particularly relevant since ready-to-eat salads are intended to be consumed raw without any further treatment by the consumer," they pointed out. "Future work should investigate presence of [the parasite] in different steps of the ready-to-eat production to minimise infection risk for humans." Rise in food poisoning cases The warning follows alerts relating to a significant rise in serious food poisoning cases. The latest annual data from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) showed that Campylobacter infections increased by 17% between 2023 and 2014 - from 60,055 to 70,352. According to UKHSA, this represents the highest number of cases recorded in the past decade. Meanwhile, Salmonella infections also reached a decade high, according to data. They rose by with a 17% as well, from 8,872 cases in 2023 to 10,388 cases in 2024.
New York Times
a day ago
- Lifestyle
- New York Times
3 Salad Dressings You Should Memorize
These recipes from Samin Nosrat, the 'Salt Fat Acid Heat' author, will have you reaching for your greens all summer long. Keep homemade dressings on hand in your fridge, and all kinds of big salads become in reach. Rachel Vanni for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Spencer Richards. Published June 27, 2025 Updated June 27, 2025 This article is part of Cooking 101, our series on kitchen fundamentals. Every episode covers a different technique, tool or ingredient, and each host shares the tips and recipes that they believe will set you up for success, no matter where you are in your cooking journey. Watch all the episodes on YouTube, and view all the recipes on New York Times Cooking. While I'll always have warm feelings for a few store-bought salad dressings (I'm looking at you, Hidden Valley ranch seasoning), the thought of coating fresh lettuce with bottled ingredients of indeterminate age and provenance makes my heart hurt. After you've taken the time to combine fresh vegetables, grains and other ingredients into something that sings, you want to add to the harmony, not overwhelm it. In that way, I like to think of salad dressings as the Darlene Love of the kitchen. Like Ms. Love, perhaps the most brilliant backup singer of all time, a good dressing enhances without overshadowing it. And there's no better way to ensure that than making your own. As a young restaurant cook, I was taught that each salad must have its own bespoke dressing. Preparing one might involve blending an herb oil for mayonnaise base or seeding, juicing, mashing, roasting or zesting various fruits. Then came layering in acids and oils until the dressing was perfectly balanced. By The New York Times Cooking That kind of effort made sense in a high-end restaurant, but, at home, undertaking a multistep recipe for a single-use dressing felt sort of ridiculous. As a result, I'd just about stopped making salad at home until a few years ago, when I began working on my second cookbook. While creating the dressing recipes, I'd often end up with multiple jars, and, loathe to waste them, I found myself reaching for them night after night. Eventually, I came to the now-obvious-seeming conclusion that if I have a jar of homemade salad dressing (or three!) ready to go in the fridge, I'm much more likely to eat a salad. The recipes here aren't just simple, they take any kind of greens you have on hand to the next level. This delicate sherry-shallot vinaigrette, from Rita Sodi and Jody Williams of the West Village trattoria, Via Carota, is such a stalwart that I now just call it my 'House Dressing.' Use it on any salad of tender greens, grain and bean salads, or a niçoise salad. Via Carota, a West Village restaurant, inspired this sherry-shallot vinaigrette. Rachel Vanni for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Spencer Richards. The creamy lemon-miso dressing here, inspired by a dressing at Kismet Rotisserie in Los Angeles, is somehow both light and rich. Add the optional poppy seeds for that classic lemon-poppy seed flavor, or leave them out for a much more versatile dressing, great for green salad, grain salad, roasted vegetables, or a composed summer salad of tomatoes, cucumbers and avocado chunks. This miso-lemon dressing is great on roasted vegetables. Rachel Vanni for The New York Times And then there's a sesame-ginger dressing, which I developed with visions of cabbage slaw and chicken salad floating through my head. The ginger's fire, chile's heat and acid's tang go right to the edge without going over. Use this creamy dressing to dress a salad of crunchy romaine and cabbage, just-boiled green beans, or rice or noodle bowls. It also makes a wonderful condiment for chicken, fish and tofu. Dress a crunchy salad of romaine and cabbage with a creamy sesame-ginger dressing. Rachel Vanni for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Spencer Richards. While none of these are hard to make, a hand-held immersion blender makes the light work of the dressings, and a sharp knife will make dicing shallots for the vinaigrette immeasurably easier. I like to make them in wide-mouthed jars, then cap and store leftovers in the fridge for up to a week. Of course, your vinaigrette will congeal in the fridge. Your dressing may separate. And any dressing's sharpness is sure to flatten. But you can always bring it back to life with a few tweaks. If your dressing congeals, set the jar in a warm spot to return it to its liquid state. For a separated vinaigrette, ensure the jar is tightly capped and give it a good shake to reunite the oil and vinegar. (If it's creamy, first, try shaking the jar. If that doesn't encourage it, let the dressing come to room temperature, add a small chip of ice, give the mixture a quick whiz with an immersion blender.) And for a dressing losing its luster, taste and add a bit more salt, acid, fresh citrus zest or a touch of sweetener. Take good care of your dressing, and it'll always be there for you, ready to raise up anything it coats. Follow New York Times Cooking on Instagram , Facebook , YouTube , TikTok and Pinterest . Get regular updates from New York Times Cooking, with recipe suggestions, cooking tips and shopping advice .
Telegraph
2 days ago
- General
- Telegraph
French bean and rocket side salad with Old Winchester
French beans (or bobby beans as I call them) make a brilliantly simple salad – even just boiled and tossed with chopped shallots and a punchy mustard vinaigrette. I've used Old Winchester here, a fantastic hard cheese made by Lyburn Farm in Salisbury. It's a bit like an aged Gouda or Parmesan – nutty, savoury and full of flavour. But if you can't get your hands on it, don't worry – any good hard cheese will do the job nicely.
Washington Post
3 days ago
- Lifestyle
- Washington Post
This warm and smoky shrimp salad with chorizo is a weeknight win
This recipe is an interplay of contrasts: simultaneously fresh and warm, light and rich, complex and simple. It's both a salad and a comfort food, and its intense bold flavor might have you thinking it involves serious time and effort. I'm delighted to tell you that it comes together in minutes.
New York Times
3 days ago
- General
- New York Times
Too Much Zucchini? This Salad Can Save the Day
The first time I had a real relationship with zucchini, it was with No. 10 cans of stewed green and yellow summer squash swimming in their juices, pale and flavorless, save for the distinct taste of tin and sadness. Squash is ubiquitous in the South for nearly all of late spring, summer and well into autumn, but my stint at Park Place Family Restaurant in Dahlonega, Ga., my first official job, informed a good decade of believing I hated it in any form. Recipe: Zucchini and Fennel Salad I would open those cans with an industrial-size tabletop opener, the kind that took my whole 15-year-old body to lift, clank down and crank. I would unceremoniously pour the squash into pans to heat, without any further seasoning, then transfer them into hotel pans to be kept warm over steamy water on the buffet. The summer squash lived next to mashed potatoes, which were made from scratch with great care, and the green beans, which were not. (They, too, came from cans with a desperate air about them.) It was the early 1990s, an era when cruising the town square and working at a buffet during the summer were about all there was to do to keep out of trouble. Fast-forward about 10 years, a kid on my hip, a makeshift bakery in my Nashville apartment, and I found myself flirting with the vegetable, seemingly more abundant than ever in the hills of Tennessee. I grated this bounty into quick breads, cookies and pie filling (after all the water was well squeezed out). I often treated it like a cucumber, using it raw in salads and playing around with canning and pickling it in various brines, including red Kool-Aid. (Koolickles — they're a Southern thing. Let us live!) Here's the one experiment that stuck: Riffing on a recipe every Southerner has or loves some version of, I kept on my habit of treating summer squash like a cucumber and, one day, casually made what we know in the South as refrigerator pickles with them. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
