The big uncut leaves are suited for slow nibbling of token amounts of salad.
Croutons are recognizable from a distance as a non vegetable ingredient, making it attractive to someone who'd rather not eat vegetables at all. To me they're just stale bread.
> The big uncut leaves are suited for slow nibbling of token amounts of salad.
What does this sentence even mean?
Basically anything you put into a salad is better off in a soup or stew, or heavily treated with such low-ph liquid (e.g. salsa, pickled veggies, etc) as to remove the risk. If it isn't suited for canning, I'm not going to eat it.
Perhaps in a country with better-regulated food production it would seem more reasonable.
If your that concerned consider keeping some raw foods like oranges, bananas, pomegranate, onions etc which involve removing pealing the outer layer before consumption.