Why do I get food poisoning from salads?

Salad is a perfect storm of risk factors. It is eaten raw, so there is no cooking step to kill bacteria. Its ingredients are handled repeatedly: picked, packed, chopped, mixed, dressed, often by many hands. And some of its stars are repeat outbreak offenders: the FDA notes leafy greens have been a suspect or confirmed vehicle in multiple E. coli outbreaks, with one investigation tracing contamination to irrigation water from an on-farm reservoir, and the NHS warns that pre-packaged sandwiches and salads can contain listeria. Add mayonnaise-based sides sitting warm at buffets and cross-contamination from cutting boards, and the healthy-choice reputation looks misplaced. Safer salad habits: wash whole leaves under running water, understanding it reduces but does not eliminate risk; refrigerate salads promptly and respect the two-hour rule the FDA sets for perishables; keep pre-cut bagged salads cold and eat them by the use-by date; wash hands, boards, and knives after raw chicken before any salad work; and at buffets, skip the bowl that has been sitting lukewarm. In pregnancy or when immunocompromised, the NHS caution about pre-packaged salads applies directly: favor freshly made, well-chilled salads you assemble yourself. Recurring food poisoning after salad might also be a specific trigger like a dressing intolerance, worth noting if it keeps happening with no one else sick.