- The endless debate has recently resurfaced on TikTok
- Industry experts assure people that they are NOT using plastic from lettuce
- The clear coating on leafy greens is, they say, healthy and edible
People have filmed themselves peeling a weird clear film off their leafy greens on TikTok, only to leave the internet asking, “Is romaine lettuce really plastic?”
Videos show users pulling pieces of plastic out of restaurant or store-bought vegetables, or ‘melting’ the ‘plastic’ lettuce through burning it.
Experts have now weighed in on this subject and emphasized that, despite appearances to the contrary, it is all perfectly natural.
So what is it?
The short answer is a “frostbite injury” or “epidermal peel,” but the long answer is surprisingly complex.
Romaine lettuce is grown outdoors and temperature can play a role in how the lettuce will turn out once fully grown, especially if it suffers a freeze injury.
A freeze injury in lettuce is described as “blistering and peeling of the epidermis, followed by browning of the tissues,” according to one researcher. University of California Cooperative Extension document cited by Life hacker.
In this situation, the lettuce may flake off in a way that confuses people, even if it hasn’t turned brown yet.
It is believed that the climatic requirements of the crop in the cool season play a role: the optimum growing temperature is 23 degrees Celsius during the day and 7 degrees Celsius at night.
If the temperature is too high, the lettuce may become bitter and loose. Near freezing conditions slow crop growth and can damage the outer leaves, causing spoilage when the vegetable is stored.
The debate has been going on for a long time; in the video below you can see how a woman in 2018 expressed her concerns about this. It’s unclear how the lettuce in her video was handled.
An unlikely comparison to the agricultural phenomenon is a skin blister. Human skin, like lettuce, contains a protective layer that can be peeled off.
‘This ‘coating’ is actually the ‘epidermal or skin layer’ of the lettuce and ‘not plastic’. That’s why consumers of both organic and conventionally grown products have noticed the effect,” said organic grocer Albert’s Fresh Produce in 2012.
“It has nothing to do with anything externally applied to the product.”
Consumers are understandably wary of lettuce, given the susceptibility to contamination that food poisoning can cause. An outbreak of E. coli hit lettuce in Wendy’s restaurants and hospitalized 42 people in August 2022
Lettuce in the refrigerator of a supermarket or fast food restaurant can differ depending on how it is stored or transported, but the ‘plastic’ you take off makes no difference to the consumer.
People are understandably wary, given lettuce’s susceptibility to contamination that can cause food poisoning.
An outbreak of E. coli hit lettuce in Wendy’s restaurants in Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania in August 2022.
The outbreak later spread to New York and Kentucky, and Wendy’s became the subject of a nationwide health survey conducted by the CDC.
“We are cooperating fully with public health authorities in their ongoing investigation into the regional E. coli outbreak,” the burger chain said at the time.
The outbreak hospitalized 42 people, ten of whom developed hemolytic uremic syndrome, a complication that could lead to kidney failure.