Is Any Vegetable a Safe Vegetable?

Experienced travelers to developing areas usually know to avoid the water, the iced drinks, the unpeeled fruit, and the raw vegetables, but many get sick anyway. Does intestinal peril lurk even in cooked food?

Cooked and uncooked vegetables from 18 popular restaurants in Guadalajara, Mexico, were analyzed for bacterial content. Overall, 27 of 64 samples (42%) were contaminated with coliforms; in comparison, 17 of 67 samples (25%) from 32 Houston restaurants were contaminated. Similar contamination rates were reported in cooked and uncooked samples from buffets in both cities. However, cooked vegetables served at the table in Guadalajara were contaminated significantly more often than were those in Houston, and the number of colony-forming un…