I have recently read anything from: All Organic Foods are Dangerous, to: Never Eat Anything Sprouted.  Last time I checked, most Vegetables start their life as a sprout.    Japan's recent exprience with food safety was centered around the claim sprouts were the cause.  It made headlines and ruined the industry.  A retraction was later produced somewhere on the back pages of the same newpaper. 

 

All vegetables should be washed.  We live in a time where a billion food events take place every day.  This number puts the problem of food safety into perspective and opens up the discussion of why the tiny sprouting industry must answer for the risk associated with fertilizer, GMO, herbicides, oceanic dead zones, growth hormones, salt, high fructose corn syrup and all the other culprits scientifically proven to be truly dangerous and a very expensive consequence impacting the question of food safety.  Use your common sense.  Wash your veggies, but for pete' s sake, please don't let them tell you its dangerous to eat a salad these days, particularly when the ingredients are produced in closed settings with no fertilizer or animals on site (the leading cause of cross contamination in agriculture.)

 

I don't do anything special to grow my sprouts, I put the seed in organic compost so safe I could eat it instead, trim the stalk up high and wash.  The sunflower confection market is huge and the seeds are thrown into the mouth with absolute abandon.  What's the difference here?  Raw vs. cooking, so cook your food if you are worried. 

 

In the end, I believe experts like Steve will help us understand current food safety issues in the global marketplace.  For this reason  I expect to be conducting events dedicated to the issue.  I would rather talk about recipes because when you look at the numbers you quickly realize how much hype is tied to the food safety message.  Remember, we live in a world of 4 biliion people.  four times 3 meals is 12 biliion food events a day.  So far, I can only deduce one thing.  The incidence of food poisoning is statistically insignificant to the volume of food consumed in an average American supper.  Common sense dictates protect us, this is why we wash our food and look both ways when crossing the street.