
CDC Food Safety Alert: E. Coli Outbreak Linked to Romaine Lettuce - sycdan
https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2018/s1120-ecoli-romain-lettuce.html
======
craftyguy
It seems like no one learned anything after the last one 5 months ago:
[https://www.cdc.gov/ecoli/2018/o157h7-04-18/index.html](https://www.cdc.gov/ecoli/2018/o157h7-04-18/index.html)

IIRC the first outbreak was from farmers in Yuma watering their fields with
water that had been contaminated by runoff from a large cattle farm upstream.

(The article says the two aren't related, but it seems like more than a
coincidence unless romaine lettuce is more succeptible to contracting and
retaining e. coli somehow..)

~~~
windexh8er
Consumer Reports had a more thorough article than the short write up by the
CDC. I find it frustrating the CDC blanket points the fjnger at lettuce
without disclosing root cause. People confuse the fact that plants are not the
source, animal feces is (most likely in this case). Just as s it was last
time...

[https://www.consumerreports.org/food-safety/what-growers-
are...](https://www.consumerreports.org/food-safety/what-growers-are-doing-to-
keep-romaine-lettuce-safe-to-eat/)

~~~
village-idiot
But it's still correct to be wary of plants, the fact that you typically eat
them raw makes them the most common source of infection.

~~~
windexh8er
Growing lettuce in your garden bears very few risks. Buying lettuce from a
store also carriers very free risks if you know the source. Plants are
significantly less risk than any red meat or white meat.

The way the CDC presents this makes it appear, to the uniformed, that this is
a plant borne illness - of which it is not. It's almost certain it is human
created through misuse of fecal matter disposal or fertilizer.

~~~
vel0city
I am pretty much always going to throw a cut of meat on the grill or in a pan
on the stove. This action brings the food up to a temperature where it tends
to kill/denature a lot of the bad bugs in the food.

I'm likely to just rinse off an apple or lettuce, which may or may not
successfully clean the food.

~~~
rhizome
_This action brings the food up to a temperature where it tends to kill
/denature a lot of the bad bugs in the food._

Unfortunately that's not enough, because cooking temperatures don't always
denature the _toxins_ that the bugs produce, which is what the real problems
come from.

~~~
newnewpdro
> Unfortunately that's not enough, because cooking temperatures don't always
> denature the toxins that the bugs produce, which is what the real problems
> come from.

Isn't the problem that the "bugs" produce the toxins while thriving _inside_
your body? If you kill them through cooking, they won't be producing anything
while inside you when dead.

~~~
DanBC
This problem is most commonly found in rice.

Cooking the rice doesn't kiil the bugs. Not chilling the rice quickly enough
allows the bugs to produce toxins. Reheating the rice doesn't destroy the
toxin.

[https://www.nhs.uk/common-health-questions/food-and-
diet/can...](https://www.nhs.uk/common-health-questions/food-and-diet/can-
reheating-rice-cause-food-poisoning/)

------
ihumanable
Planet Money just did an episode on this issue which ended with the opinion
that it was highly likely to happen again, guess they were right.

[https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2018/08/24/641739640/epis...](https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2018/08/24/641739640/episode-861-food-
scare-squad)

------
stcredzero
The other day, my wife introduced me to yet another difference between Chinese
cuisine and US cuisine: She cooked the Romaine lettuce she got from her
coworker. She just cooked it like you'd cook Bok Choy. It was quite good!

My wife also rinses _everything_ we get from the store. No one is to be
trusted with your family's food. Absolutely everything is rinsed, including
things most Americans would really rather not. One day, I had to work a bit to
convince her to not rinse the steel cut oats!

~~~
ShorsHammer
Many restaurants in China serve cooked lettuce as a side, I found it quite odd
at first but it's really tasty and with some soy sauce easy to eat by itself.
Cooking lettuce in the western world will probably raise a few eyebrows.

~~~
el_benhameen
I’ve gone to a few restaurants in the US that do a cooked version of a caesar
salad that’s quite good. I’ve made it myself, too. Grill whole heads of
romaine until they’re blackened and wilting, then dress and shave parmesean on
them.

Well ... don’t do that now, I guess. But once the red alert is over, it’s
pretty tasty.

~~~
xfitm3
Gordon Ramsay has something to say about cooked salads, and it’s hilarious.

------
phyzome
Reminder that if you're getting your lettuce from a local farm at the farmers
market, you probably don't have to worry about this. This outbreak is from
some industrial romaine lettuce growing and processing operation.

(Yes, it's possible for local produce to be contaminated with E. coli as well.
I have no idea if it's more or less likely on average. But it shouldn't be
involved in this outbreak, so go ahead and make your salad.)

~~~
agsdfgsd
Be sure you actually know this local farm is real. Lots of stalls at farmer's
markets are just buying the same produce as grocery stores and selling it at a
higher price while lying about where it came from.

[http://www.tampabay.com/projects/2016/food/farm-to-
fable/far...](http://www.tampabay.com/projects/2016/food/farm-to-
fable/farmers-markets/)

[https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/farmers-markets-lies-
market...](https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/farmers-markets-lies-
marketplace-1.4306231)

------
po
If people are wondering why vegetables can be infected with something like E.
Coli, the reason is that animal waste is often used as fertilizer, or animals
live near the crop's water supply and then gets sprayed all over the vegetable
crops.

~~~
tyingq
It's not just animal waste. [http://time.com/3974244/cilantro-
feces/](http://time.com/3974244/cilantro-feces/)

~~~
npongratz
To be fair, humans are animals. But yes, waste from human and non-human
animals have contaminated crops throughout history.

------
garysahota93
It seems like this happens all the time. I really wonder what the implications
of this will be to companies like Chipotle, who use Romaine Lettuce
exclusively. Personally, I am more of a fan of Iceberg, but it just makes me
wonder why E. Coli is much more common in Romaine than in Iceberg. Any
thoughts?

~~~
ransom1538
Forcing workers to drag a "porta potty" through lettuce fields so farmers
don't have to pay for the restroom breaks could be causing this.

[http://crownservicesco.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Ag-
and...](http://crownservicesco.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Ag-and-
construction-porta-potty-2-700x536.jpg)

~~~
VectorLock
If I was a farm worker I wouldn't be too upset about not having to go perhaps
a long ways to use a restroom and be able to clean my hands afterwards.

~~~
clort
If you were a farm worker who was paid piece rates rather than hourly, you
might be less happy about that

~~~
agsdfgsd
Why? Not having to walk across a field saves them time, so they can spend more
time harvesting, so they make more money.

------
mythrwy
Lettuce grows outdoors, in the soil. Animals have access to it for weeks or
months. Dust happens around it. It is quite likely sprayed with fertilizer or
pesticide at some point. Then it is cut by hand. Then it goes to the store
where it is fondled by employees and the passing public.

So it's a good idea to wash it (and all produce) very thoroughly and not
depend on some process to clean if for you. That means in the case of lettuce
separating the leaves. It might be overkill but I usually put a drop or two of
bleach in wash water, dunk chopped greens, rinse them well in clean water,
then spin them in a centrifugal spinner. Something like this (these things are
great) [https://www.amazon.com/OXO-Good-Grips-Salad-
Spinner/dp/B0000...](https://www.amazon.com/OXO-Good-Grips-Salad-
Spinner/dp/B00004OCKR)

Also they sell specific vegetable washes although a little bleach or hydrogen
peroxide works well enough for me. Generally I don't eat raw produce at
restaurants.

For the record, I worked on a lettuce farm years ago and food safety is very
important, but it's a mass produced out door farm operation with manual
handling of product. To say nothing of transport and retail. It's better to
wash things yourself and be sure. I think in many parts of the world this is
better understood, but for some reason in the US we have this disembodied view
of where food comes from.

------
beefman
Tens of millions of people shouldn't eat Romaine lettuce because 30 people got
sick in October?

~~~
agumonkey
Well you can if you want

~~~
decebalus1
Not really. Just got back from some holiday grocery shopping and in all 3
stores I've been to the clerks were removing the romaine from the shelves.
That's how I found out about this.

~~~
capkutay
I had the unfortunate luck of reading the breaking news as I was eating a
caesar salad at a restaurant. The restaurant didn't seem to be aware of the
news.

------
elipsey
The offending strain in both the current outbreak, and a major outbreak in
June, is E. coli O157:H7, which is a less common strain typically associated
with cattle or other livestock.[1] CDC analysis (also helpfully linked by
craftyguy) of the previous outbreak of this strain, which hospitalized or
killed people in 36 states, found that the source was contaminated canal water
used for irrigation near Yuma AZ.[2] A large CAFO (Confined Animal Feeding
Operation) exists upstream nearby.[3] You can see it from space in satellite
imagery. It is interesting to view the orientation of this CAFO to Gila River,
and to zoom in to the level of individual cattle to get a sense of it's scale
and topographic orientation.

Determining the source of water contamination is outside of the scope of
office of CDC. EPA is responsible for this, but I can find no evidence of
investigation of the source canal contamination. Perhaps EPA is becoming more
“business friendly.”

[1] [https://en.wikipedia.org](https://en.wikipedia.org)
/wiki/Escherichia_coli_O157:H7#Natural_habitat

[2]
[https://www.cdc.gov/ecoli/2018/o157h7-04-18/index.html](https://www.cdc.gov/ecoli/2018/o157h7-04-18/index.html)

[3]
[https://www.google.com/maps/place/McElhaney+Cattle+Company/@...](https://www.google.com/maps/place/McElhaney+Cattle+Company/@32.6971245,-114.0872687,16308m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x80d67cf24fd3037b:0xed7aa673e0848208!8m2!3d32.6917931!4d-114.0578097)

Edit: FDA published an environmental assessment on Nov. 1. They also
attributed contaminated canal water as a possible cause. That assessment
included "limited" samples (I can't figure out what kind of samples) from the
CAFO, which found no matching e coli strain. The authors state that the
assessment occurred several weeks after the growing season ended.

"It is uncertain how the outbreak strain of E. coli O157:H7 was introduced
into this 3.5-mile stretch of irrigation canal water. The first illnesses in
this outbreak occurred in March 2018, and therefore the outbreak strain may
have been present in the irrigation canal months before the EA team collected
the positive samples, or the outbreak strain may have been repeatedly
introduced into the irrigation canal. A large concentrated animal feeding
operation (CAFO) is located adjacent to this stretch of the irrigation canal.
The EA team did not identify an obvious route for contamination of the
irrigation canal from this facility; in addition, the limited number of
samples collected at the CAFO also did not yield the outbreak strain. Other
possible explanations for how the irrigation canal became contaminated are
possible, but the EA team found no evidence in support of alternative
explanations.

Growers suggested weather events in the Yuma growing region may have
contributed to crop contamination. The EA team considered the possibility that
leaf freeze damage and dew on romaine leaves created conditions favorable for
windborne contamination of the crop with dust carrying the outbreak strain of
E. coli O157:H7. While this type of STEC contamination has been demonstrated
(Berry et. al, 2015), it does not explain the presence of the outbreak strain
in a free-flowing irrigation canal months later when there was little wind in
the region."

[https://www.fda.gov/Food/RecallsOutbreaksEmergencies/Outbrea...](https://www.fda.gov/Food/RecallsOutbreaksEmergencies/Outbreaks/ucm624546.htm#IV)

~~~
chiefalchemist
Long to short, the "pollution" from large scale factory animal farming is
poisoning the downstream vegetable farming. Is that it?

Given the disconnect between the FDA and the EPA can't the CDC step in? Is
there no authority at the state level?

~~~
elipsey
I don't know. Evidence is inconclusive, but suggestive.

I'm throwing out my lettuce like CDC told me to, but I woundn't go pointing
fingers on twitter just yet. :)

~~~
chiefalchemist
Well, we do know that in this case shit __doesn't__ just happen. The sources
has to be from somewhere. And we do know factory animal farms have plenty of
unsavoury byproducts.

I agree. Can't jump to conclusions. Even so, if feels like a preventable
accident that's eventually going to happen (if it hasn't done so already). The
ag industry is a strong lobby. Given that those animals need feed there's a
clear incentive for all involved to keep the truth from coming out.

------
newnewpdro
We really need a way to quickly test if a sample of anything is contaminated
with these common pathogens prior to raw consumption at home.

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garyclarke27
Wash (obviously) discard any damaged leaves, use plenty of vinegar in
dressing, vinegar is quite effective at killing bacteria, balsamic is best,
salt, sugar, lemon juice also kill em.

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reasonablemann
Romaine lettuce is less nutritious, more expensive and make you fart more than
spinach. The last part is what made me stop buying Romaine for good.

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savethefuture
Its always the lettuce!

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pmccarren
Again?

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Pristina
just soak your fresh vegies in 10% bleach and you will be fine

