https://www-m.cnn.com/2018/04/20/health/romaine-lettuce-e-coli-outbreak-bn/index.html
FYI. Better safe than sorry!!
Actually, the CDC is saying throw your romaine away no matter where it came from unless you grew it yourself. Just don’t eat romaine right now period.
Yes, just saw that update. Toss it!!!
After taking a class about bad, nasty, absolutely no good food, I can tell you that taking a chance is not worth it.
Kidney failure v.$2 = easy choice
Just throw away all romaine lettuce.
However, what do they do to lettuce at picking, processing, or packaging that it can get such bacteria???
I find it unsettling that this started months ago and is still ongoing. Our food chain in this country definitely has room for improvement.
Do we even know what happened?
Of course I ate a salad from Wendy’s last night. Ugh!
That’s weird. I had ordered a salad in AZ on Monday and a big sign read, “No romaine”. When I asked why, the employee said she didn’t know. I also had a Wendy’s salad on Wednesday.
“However, what do they do to lettuce at picking, processing, or packaging that it can get such bacteria???”
You don’t want to know. You can’t wash this bacteria out of lettuce.
This is from CDC website:
Based on new information, CDC is expanding its warning to consumers to cover all types of romaine lettuce from the Yuma, Arizona growing region. This warning now includes whole heads and hearts of romaine lettuce, in addition to chopped romaine and salads and salad mixes containing romaine.
Do not buy or eat romaine lettuce at a grocery store or restaurant unless you can confirm it is not from the Yuma, Arizona, growing region.
Looks like only romaine from Yuma, AZ is recalled. Costco lettuce comes from Salinas CA, but I think I’ll just toss them to be safe. YMMV.
If you don’t know where the romaine is grown, toss it. If you buy from a California certified farmer’s market, you should be OK. A lot of lettuce is grown in the Salinas, CA, area, and no issue with this lettuce has been reported.
What would a lawyer who won many food poising cases eat? There you go - foods he would not touch:
http://www.businessinsider.com/food-poisoning-expert-never-orders-at-restaurants-2018-4
A few years ago, a local health department inspector said that pizza was his preferred fast food.
I bought organic lettuce at Costco late last week - figured if they had it on the shelf it must be ok since so many other stores have just emptied out their shelves the last couple of weeks.
Romaine is my favorite lettuce, so this is definitely a bummer. Haven’t purchased any for the past two weeks.
I bought a Dole salad mix last week. A closer look at the ingredients showed that it contained romaine. I tried to look up where Dole romaine came from or whether it was recalled but couldn’t find anything online. So I threw it out rather than risk E coli.
Our Costco has romaine on the shelves. I would not equate “organic” with having lesser chance of contamination. The bacteria lives in cows’ and other animals’ intestines, so if improperly composted manure is used to fertilize the fields, it can cause contamination.
https://www.cdc.gov/healthypets/diseases/ecoli.html
Wildlife can also be a problem. This article mentions one case that was apparently traced to feral pigs (note this is 2010):
http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2010/05/how-did-e-coli-o145-contaminate-the-lettuce/
@LakeWashington This is killing me as romaine is also my favorite. I buy it every week. It has been 3 weeks without a salad ugh!!
I also love romaine. I asked at a restaurant I frequent and they are still serving it but I decided that I wouldn’t risk it and ordered my salad with butter leaf. @abasket organic produce still has a risk of bacteria. Several years back if I recall correctly spinach was contaminated by cattle that had somehow made way into the fields.
I would think if you buy romaine at a local farmers market you should be fine. I might attempt to grow my own.
Our local store has it back on the shelves and Trader Joe had it last week.
I guess I am trusting them to know where their produce is grown.
Hope I am right!
I’m going to have to try to tackle growing lettuce again. I hate battling slugs.
I’ve got New Zealand spinach, arugula and red veined sorrel growing but I need a mellow lettuce with all that.
Birds can poop in my garden but mostly I don’t worry about them. Deer can’t come in. The chicken poop is composted for a year before being applied to my garden, so I’m more confident in the produce I grow then what I get at the store.
It’s just the slugs. Wugh.