Vegetable salads

Dishes of mixed vegetables — raw or cooked — sometimes served with sauces or dressings, from simple garden salads to composed plates like salade niçoise, coleslaw, and grain-based salads. They deliver fibre, vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals at low energy density. Food safety is the defining challenge: raw salads get no kill step, so washing in potable water, preventing cross-contamination, holding the cold chain, and sourcing from good-agricultural-practice farms are the controls against Salmonella, E. coli O157, and norovirus — the pathogens behind repeated salad-linked outbreaks. Dressing acidity gives only partial protection.