Recent recalls involving pre-cut lettuce have understandably made many consumers wonder whether all pre-cut vegetables carry the same food safety risks. The answer is no.
The multistate Cyclospora outbreak has been linked by FDA investigators to recalled shredded iceberg lettuce from a specific supplier in Mexico. The illnesses highlight how important food safety is throughout the fresh produce supply chain, from the field to the consumer.
IQF (Individually Quick Frozen) peppers, such as IQF red bell peppers from Eckert, have several characteristics that make them fundamentally different from fresh, ready-to-eat lettuce.
Different Products, Different Risks
Fresh, pre-cut produce is typically eaten raw. Once it is washed and packaged, it goes directly into salads, dips, sandwiches, and wraps without any additional cooking. If contamination occurs before the product reaches consumers, there is no “kill step” to eliminate harmful microorganisms. Fortunately, this scenario is extremely rare when compared to how many millions, if not billions of pounds of fresh produce are consumed every day without incident.
All IQF peppers such as red bell peppers follow a different path.
After harvest, peppers are washed, trimmed, blanched (“kill step”), inspected with high-speed automatic sorters and metal detectors, and rapidly frozen. The blanching process involves completely submerging the peppers in boiling hot water for a predetermined amount of time, which is designed to be a “kill step” should any microbial issue be present.
More importantly, all Eckert IQF peppers are sample tested for common microbial contaminants before shipping. And IQF peppers are designed to be cooked a second time in foods such as frozen pizzas, omelets, or prepared meals. Cooking provides an additional level of food safety that fresh produce does not receive.
What is a “kill step” as it relates to food safety?
In layman’s terms, a kill step is any process that reduces a targeted microbial load by 99.99%.
The most common method for IQF peppers is by blanching them in a 200-degree water bath for a preset time period. The process is similar to putting your vegetables in a pot of boiling water and then dipping them in cold water to stop the cooking process. The blanching time is long enough to kill any microbial load but not so much that the peppers lose their crispness and vibrant color.
Eckert uses this method of “kill step” in our plants in both California and Mexico. In fact, our Mexico plant has an added layer of food safety protection. All water coming into the plant that is used for processing is first cleaned through a charcoal filtering system.
Activated charcoal is the gold standard for water purification because any contaminants are absorbed by the charcoal. This alleviates the risk of having the wrong filter screen size for the contaminant you want to be protected from, or a contaminant falling off the filter screen.
Doesn’t Freezing Sterilize Food?
One common misconception is that freezing kills bacteria. It doesn’t.
Freezing can stop the growth of bacteria, molds, and yeasts by putting them into a dormant state. However, they can also wake up when the product is thawed and start multiplying again. That’s why IQF processors like Eckert focus heavily on preventing contamination from the field to freezing through strict sanitation, employee hygiene, equipment cleaning, water purification, continuous quality monitoring, and finished product testing.
These systems are designed to identify potential hazards before products leave the facility.
The Bottom Line
Eckert’s IQF peppers benefit from rapid processing, a blanching “kill step”, strict food safety controls, finished product testing, and most importantly the fact that they are typically cooked twice before consumption.
While no food production system can eliminate risk entirely, modern IQF vegetable processors invest heavily in preventive food safety systems designed to deliver safe, high-quality products to consumers every day.
The recent fresh lettuce recall should reinforce confidence in the importance of the strong food safety practices in the IQF space—not create unnecessary concern about all frozen vegetables. Each product category should be evaluated on its own processing methods, intended use, where it was sourced from, and the controls in place to protect consumers.