Salad is good for you, generally speaking, so growing fresh greens in orbit seems like a winning way for space farers to stay healthy. New research suggests that as nutritious as space salad might be, it could pose something of a risk to astronauts.
The problem is growing leafy plants like lettuce and spinach in space can come with a side dish of bacteria, according to a new study from a team at the University of Delaware. In tests on plants grown in simulated microgravity, they were shown to actually be more susceptible than normal to the Salmonella enterica pathogen.
this post was submitted on 06 Feb 2024
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Interesting
I guess some of the plants natural defences rely on gravity, so without them they're more susceptible (till we can breed a better variant)
They're also way lower genetic diversity in anything you grow in space.
Sounds like not a big problem at all. Seems like they'll just have to use appropriate cleaning methods. Even in the worst case scenario they would probably just have to use food irradiation.
https://www.fda.gov/food/buy-store-serve-safe-food/food-irradiation-what-you-need-know
EDIT
In fact reading my own link i learned that they ALREADY irradiate food that astronauts eat
We know that the International Space Station (ISS) is home to a lot of aggressive bacteria and fungi
Damn, TILd
It seems that space ecosystems are underdeveloped.