If you look at the data [0] on food recalls and safety warnings in the United States, you'll see that the large majority of food-borne salmonella occurs not in meat or eggs but in fruits and vegetables, particularly in ground-hugging varieties like peanuts, lettuces, peppers, and bean sprouts.

This is almost always either because (a) the vegetables are fertilized with manure (organic vegetables, in particular, carry a higher risk of fecal contamination and associated diseases) or because (b) they're processed and packed in contaminated facilities. It is a self-fulfilling irony of the regulatory regime that vegetable-processing plants, which are more likely to be contaminated, are subject to less stringent safety standards than their meat- and poultry-processing counterparts.

0. http://google2.fda.gov/search?site=FDAgov-recalls&client...