Romaine Lettuce E. Coli Outbreak
By Doug Lazy on November 20, 2018
A romaine lettuce E. coli outbreak has caused the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to advise us to not eat any romaine lettuce! The E. coli breakout romaine lettuce situation has the CDC saying to throw out the product and to clean your produce drawers to reduce the romaine lettuce e coli danger.
What the CDC Recommends
According to a press release from the CDC:
CDC, public health and regulatory officials in several states, Canada, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are investigating a multistate outbreak of Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli O157:H7 (E. coli O157:H7) infections linked to romaine lettuce. (There have been 10 cases here in California).
- Consumers who have any type of romaine lettuce in their home should not eat it and should throw it away, even if some of it was eaten and no one has gotten sick.
- This advice includes all types or uses of romaine lettuce, such as whole heads of romaine, hearts of romaine, and bags and boxes of precut lettuce and salad mixes that contain romaine, including baby romaine, spring mix, and Caesar salad.
- If you do not know if the lettuce is romaine or whether a salad mix contains romaine, do not eat it and throw it away.
- Wash and sanitize drawers or shelves in refrigerators where romaine was stored. Follow these five steps to clean your refrigerator.
- Restaurants and retailers should not serve or sell any romaine lettuce, including salads and salad mixes containing romaine.
- Take action if you have symptoms of an E. coli infection:
- Talk to your healthcare provider.
- Write down what you ate in the week before you started to get sick.
- Report your illness to the health department.
- Assist public health investigators by answering questions about your illness.
Read more on the press release HERE
Earlier this year, a person here in California actually died from E. coli on romaine lettuce. Let’s all cross our fingers that NOTHING like that happens this time. Throw out that romaine lettuce because it’s better to be safe than sorry!
