Is it safe to eat lettuce right now? Here's how to gauge the risk of your summer salads

It's salad season! But knowing if and when it's safe to eat leafy greens is leaving many people scratching their heads.

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• It turns out Taylor Farms isn't the source of the Cyclospora diarrhea outbreak, the FDA said Sunday.
• Amid the confusion a question remains: should I eat salad or not?
• Evaluate your risk tolerance based on your location, health, age, and anxiety level, an expert said.

As the FDA and Taylor Farms go back and forth on the source of the cyclosporiasis outbreak in the US, Americans still have one pressing question: Will my salad give me explosive diarrhea?

On Sunday, the FDA said a test pointing to Taylor Farms as one potential source of Cyclospora was a false positive, meaning there is once again no product known to be a source of the multi-state outbreak.

Taylor Farms said on Monday that the FDA had apologized to the salad juggernaut, but its voluntary recall of iceberg lettuce grown and processed in central Mexico in the US market was still in place.

So far, so confusing.

Dr. Tyler Evans, an infectious disease doctor and the author of "Pandemics, Poverty, and Politics," said that deciding whether or not you want to eat salad depends on your risk tolerance, as well as where you live.

To help you decide, we broke the risk down into three tiers: low, medium, and throwing caution to the wind.

If you pick lettuce from your own garden, or source it from a local farmer, you can feel a little more confident that it probably won't make you sick.

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Since the outbreak was detected in May, more than 8,260 confirmed cases of cyclosporiasis have been reported to state and federal health departments, according to data compiled by the Georgetown University Health Security Operations Center.

The bulk of the cases have been reported in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, New York, North Carolina, and Colorado, but that could simply be because those states have more robust public health surveillance than others.

The cyclospora parasite thrives in hot summer weather. Public health authorities say at worst, this outbreak could last until the end of August, but that's a long, sweaty stretch of weather to face without any leafy greens in your diet.

Evans is based in California, where there isn't much cyclosporiasis being reported, and said he just had salad at a Mexican restaurant.

"I'm a very risk-tolerant infectious disease doctor," he said.

If you're older, immunocompromised, pregnant, under the age of 2 (with a developing immune system), or have a medical condition, you may want to play things a little safer until the fall.

Lowest risk of infection

Avoid lettuce entirely if you are risk-averse and focus on other vegetables that you can heat or grill.

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To ensure you will definitely not contract cyclosporiasis, choose only vegetables that are cooked to at least 158 degrees Fahrenheit, the temperature that kills this parasite. If you like berries, make jam. Craving veggies? Try grilled asparagus.

If you're in a high-risk category, "I would completely refrain from not just lettuce or iceberg lettuce, but probably all leafy greens for the foreseeable future," Evans said.

Last week, Business Insider spoke to a GI doctor who recommended some high-fiber swaps for those who can't face fresh produce right now.

Medium risk

Buy a whole head of lettuce, peel off the outer layer, and wash it if you're OK with some risk.

Lactuca sativa

Buy whole heads of lettuce, remove and discard the outer layer of leaves, and wash them thoroughly under cold running water before consuming. You can also shop for lettuce grown locally at farmers' markets. Keep an eye on your local case numbers to inform your decisions.

"In states or areas where there's a higher incidence, then I think using the mantra to peel it, boil it, cook it, or forget it is a good idea," Evans said.

Throwing caution to the wind

Where you live, where the lettuce is from, and how you prepare it all matter when it comes to staying healthy.

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Eating raw, unwashed leafy greens, especially bagged pre-chopped lettuce and salad kits, which have been the most common source of cyclosporiasis outbreaks in recent years, may be risky.

Other vegetables that have been contaminated with the parasite in the past include raspberries, snap and snow peas, and fresh herbs (cilantro, basil, parsley). It's possible that none of these foods are involved in the current outbreak, and that the risk is limited to only leafy greens, but we don't know for sure.

"Once the temperatures start dipping, we should be in the clear again," Evans said. "But the systems can do a lot better. There's some degree of acceptable risk in terms of the seasonality outbreaks, but we can do better in terms of detecting and responding to these things."

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