Posted: July 6th, 2010 - 3:07pm by Doug Powell

The Codex Alimentarius Commission decided at its meeting in Geneva that animal manure should not be used to fertilize lettuce and other fresh vegetables sold "ready to eat" to avoid dangerous diseases.

Contaminated water must also be kept away from bagged produce that is not heat-treated, the Codex experts said, fixing new benchmarks that could change production and harvesting norms across the world.

We’ve been saying that for 12 years and advocating such practices with fresh fruit and vegetable growers.

Jorgen Schlundt, director of food safety and zoonoses at the World Health Organization, said,

"It makes sense in a number of different production systems but when you are producing fresh salads that will be treated without heat treatment there is a problem.”