Thread: Warning from CDC: Do not eat romaine lettuce

Is it safe to eat salad yet? E. coli outbreak linked to romaine lettuce spreads to 16 states

Korin Miller
Writer

,Yahoo Lifestyle•April 20, 2018

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued a warning about a multistate outbreak of E. coli linked to chopped romaine lettuce.

“Consumers anywhere in the United States who have store-bought chopped romaine lettuce at home, including salads and salad mixes, should not eat it and should throw it away, even if some of it was eaten and no one has gotten sick,” the CDC warns in the recall notice.

If you have chopped lettuce in your refrigerator and you are not sure if it is romaine, you should still throw it away, the CDC says. At least 53 people have gotten sick from eating
contaminated lettuce since March 31, and 31 of them were hospitalized for illnesses linked to the lettuce. Five of them developed a type of potentially life-threatening kidney failure.

The lettuce seems to be coming from the Yuma, Ariz., region, and it is specifically contaminated with E. coliO157:H7. E. coli generally causes severe stomach cramps, diarrhea that is often bloody, and vomiting; it may also cause a fever.

Like many other food-borne illnesses, some infections are mild, whereas others can be dangerous.


Romaine lettuce. (Photo: Getty Images) More

Recalls of bagged greens seem to be happening often lately. In mid-April, more than 8,700 pounds of bagged ready-to-eat salads were recalled due to possible E. coli contamination.

In December, the CDC warned of a multistate outbreak of E. coli linked to leafy greens, and in October, the FDA issued a recall of several types of salad kits due to potential listeria contamination.

This raises a bigger question: Is it safe to eat these products? A few things about bagged greens make them slightly risky, food safety expert Darin Detwiler, PhD, director of the Regulatory Affairs of Food and Food Industry program at Northeastern University, tells Yahoo Lifestyle. One is that people typically do not wash bagged lettuce or cook it; washing could lower the risk that these pathogens would be passed on. (However, Detwiler points out that even washing your greens does not guarantee getting rid of food-borne pathogens.)

Bagged greens are also handled more than lettuce and other greens you find in your grocery store’s produce aisle — and that exposes the bagged greens to potential contamination, Elliot T. Ryser, PhD, a professor in the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition at Michigan State University, tells Yahoo Lifestyle. His research has found that E. coli can “readily transfer” during processing leafy greens. Even though sanitizer is used in this processing, it is not 100 percent effective in getting rid of the spread of E. coli, he says.

Although eating greens that have not gone through this processing step may lower your risk slightly, ultimately, eating raw fruits and vegetables, in general, comes with some risk, Benjamin Chapman, PhD, an associate professor and food safety extension specialist at North Carolina State University, tells Yahoo Lifestyle. If you are immunocompromised, it might be better to cook your greens before eating them, he says. For everyone else, you are probably OK to keep doing what you’re doing.

“The likelihood of becoming ill from fresh-cut produce is still extremely low,” Ryser says.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/romaine-r...161504112.html

Thank you JohnDoe2.

Romaine lettuce outbreak update: 149 sick in 29 states

Posted: May 09, 2018 12:22 PM PDT Updated: May 09, 2018 12:22 PM PDT
By MIKE STOBBE
AP Medical Writer

NEW YORK (AP) - Four more states are reporting illnesses in a food poisoning outbreak linked to romaine lettuce.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its numbers on the outbreak Wednesday, revealing that 149 people in 29 states had gotten sick.
It's unclear if new illness are still occurring. There's a lag in reporting, and the most recent illness began two weeks ago.

Florida, Minnesota, North Dakota and Texas have joined the list of states reporting at least one E. coli illness linked to the outbreak.

At least 64 people have been hospitalized, including 17 with kidney failure. One death, previously reported, occurred in California.

Health officials have tied the outbreak to romaine lettuce grown in Yuma, Arizona, which provides most of the romaine sold in the U.S. during the winter.

http://www.krgv.com/story/38152181/r...k-in-29-states

Four more die in E.Coli outbreak linked to romaine lettuce

Reuters•June 1, 2018

(Reuters) - Four more people died from an E. coli outbreak linked to romaine lettuce, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Friday, bringing the total toll to five.

Twenty-five more people have taken ill since the last update from the agency on May 16, with 197 patients from 35 states now affected, the CDC said.

Related SearchesIs It Safe To Eat Romaine LettuceRomaine Lettuce RecallGrilled Romaine LettuceCDC Romaine Lettuce

The patients who died were from Arkansas, California, Minnesota and New York.

Some affected people did not report eating romaine lettuce, but had contact with those who fell ill after consuming the popular salad plant, the CDC said.

Most new cases involve people who became sick two or three weeks ago, when the tainted lettuce was still available for sale.

The U.S. Food And Drug Administration has said the harvest season for romaine lettuce is over.

The reported strain of E. coli, which produces poisonous substances known as Shiga toxins, can cause severe stomach cramps, bloody diarrhea and vomiting.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/four-more...151054180.html

Foodborne illness on the rise. 48 million sick, 128,000 hospitalized, 3,000 die

And WHO are the workers in these processing plants? Illegal aliens? Foreigners with no hygiene training?

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