Salad producers move to calm pollution fears over Spanish imports

Members of The Fresh Prepared Salads Producer Group, which supplies washed and ready to eat mixed salad packs to all of the UK's major supermarkets, have issued a statement following media reports claiming that some Spanish farmers are using untreated sewage to water their vegetables as they battle to raise crops in a severe drought. "Despite the fact that recent allegations have been retracted, there may continue to be some concern that the use of poor quality water could affect the safety of our salads. We would like to stress that all of our growers operate to the highest standards and the wholly unacceptable practice of using 'dirty' or sewer water for irrigation of salads is absolutely banned. Our quality assurance programmes ensure that suppliers only use water supplies that are consistent with a ready-to-eat product," says the statement. "Nearly all of our salad leaves are sourced from the UK from May right through to the autumn. A very small quantity of baby leaves and herbs are currently being brought in from the Almeria region of Spain and from the West coast of Portugal, where clean fresh water for irrigation is in adequate supply. No leaves are being imported from Murcia, where the sewage incidents were alleged to have taken place. "UK consumers can continue to buy packs of fresh prepared salads leaves with full confidence. Some 2.5 billion ready-to-eat salad packs have been sold in the UK in the last 10 years and they have an excellent safety record." Members of the Fresh Prepared Salads Producer Group comprise Geest, Nature's Way Foods, Vitacress Salads, Fresh Del Monte, Florette and Kanes Foods.