Food

Packed salads

Updated: 20 Mar 2009

Introduction

For a price, ready-to-eat salads promise a convenient way to get your greens. But what's inside can sometimes leave a lot to be desired.

We bought 15 ready-to-eat salads from supermarkets and asked our panel to rate them for quality. Only 3 of the 15 mixes we bought rated as good. Most of the rest were "fair"; three were "below average".

Freshness

Despite the "fresh" claims on labels, panel members found most samples contained some brown or wilting leaves. These were usually a small proportion of the overall mix and most of the bag was still "OK" - though you'd need to pick out the "bad" bits before making a salad.

The worst of the bunch, a Leader Brand Value Pack Mesclun, had a lot of brown leaves and an "off-putting" smell. This salad definitely didn't live up to its "100% Fresh" claim. Brand is seemingly not a good guide to freshness - the best and worst ready-to-eat salads in our tasting were both by Leader Brand. (See the survey results for more.)

Salads with lots of chopped leaves typically deteriorate more rapidly than those with intact leaves. The Value Pack Mesclun ranked lowest by our panel had plenty of chopped or broken leaves, contributing to the noticeable browning.

Bulk-bin mixes

Our 15 salads included 2 mesclun mixes from bulk bins. The advantage of these self-service bins is that you can buy as little or as much salad as you want. Both our samples rated only "fair".

Best-before dates

These weren't always a reliable guide to freshness. Both our best and worst salads had a best-before date of the next day.

Always check the best-before date but don't rely on it alone. Check the contents of the bag for evidence of discoloured or slimy leaves. The type of leaf as well as the retailer's storage and handling can affect how well the salad keeps.

Price

You pay a premium for the convenience of salad in a bag. The price of our salads ranged from $1.55 per 100g to a whopping $5.79 per 100g.

Spending more doesn't necessarily mean the product is any "fresher". The cheapest salad we bought (a Leader Brand Mesclun that came with a sachet of "lite raspberry" dressing) ranked the highest overall (see the survey results).

The most expensive salad from Tasman Bay Herbs came about middle in our tasting. This company says its products are "spray free" so you may be willing to pay more.

If you're shopping on price, think about growing your own (see "Grow your own"). For around the same price as one bag of salad, you can buy a packet of seeds that may give you several months' supply.

Our survey results

Guide to the table

Products are listed in order of rank. All products were brought in Wellington supermarkets on 28 January.

About our panel

Angela Todd is a food virologist at the Institute of Environmental Science and Research.
Kathleen Shaw is a microbiologist at the New Zealand Food Safety Authority.
Paul Gibbs is a chef at the Wellington Institute of Technology.
Our panel also included Consumer writers Luke Harrison and Libby Manley.

Ready to eat?

Most packaged salads are labelled as pre-washed, even "triple washed", and ready-to-eat straight from the bag. Should you really just serve and eat?

To reduce the risk of contamination, manufacturers usually wash salad leaves in a chlorine rinse - a process some UK green groups say is good reason to avoid bagged salad. Modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) may also be used to slow the growth of bacteria and extend the shelf life of the product. This packaging technique involves removing oxygen and often replacing it with a mixture of ozone, carbon dioxide or nitrogen.

But these processes aren't fail-safe. Bagged salads overseas have been linked to illnesses caused by salmonella and e.coli. While the New Zealand Food Safety Authority says there are no reports of illness from MAP foods here, its advice is to treat bagged salad like any other fresh produce. This means washing before use.

Only one company (Fraisbon Foods) puts a label on the salads it packs, recommending consumers wash them before eating. Fraisbon packs three of the salad brands we bought: Krispkut, Freshzone and Econo Pack.

Too posh to wash?

Ready-to-eat salads are cashing in on our convenience culture and critics say they're another sign of the growing distance between people and their food. Have we really become too lazy to wash our own veges?

Even if you're happy to do the washing yourself, whole lettuces seem harder to find these days. The bagged stuff is storming supermarket shelves and is a multi-million dollar market. Horticulture New Zealand says lettuce sales now rank third out of all vege sales, bettered only by potatoes and tomatoes.

Grow your own

Growing your own salad greens isn't rocket science.

Mesclun can be grown from seed sown straight into the garden or a container. Containers can be convenient as they make it easier to tell the growing mesclun from the weeds. Mesclun grows best during spring and autumn. Sow seeds in small amounts at fortnightly intervals. Seeds should be sown sparingly about 2cm apart. Keep the bed moist but not drenched.

Start picking the leaves after four to six weeks while they're tender and succulent. Many varieties will grow back for additional harvests.

Identifying the edibles

You might get weeds from wind-blown seeds in your mesclun patch so you need to know what to look for. Our photos will help you identify the edibles. As with all fresh fruit and vegetables, wash your garden greens before use.

Chicory (below) is crunchy and has a slightly bitter taste. There are green and red varieties:

Corn salad has a mild nutty flavour and a soft texture:

Rocket has a peppery tangy flavour:

Pink-stemmed endive adds colour and taste:

Salad bowl lettuce is mild and succulent:

Curled endive is delicate and subtly bitter:

Loose-leaf lettuces add variety to salad greens:

Our advice

If you're buying ready-to-eat salads, check the best-before date but don't rely on it as your only guide to "freshness". Check the contents and avoid any bags with tell-tale brown bits or obvious wilting.
If you do open a bag and find the salad is going off, take it back to the retailer and ask for a refund.
Regardless of whether the label says "pre-washed", always wash bagged salads before eating.
If you want your greens as fresh as possible, consider growing your own. It'll work out cheaper in the long run.

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Report by Jessica Wilson