The Food & Drug Administration, along with Centers for Disease Control & Prevention and state and local agencies, is investigating a multistate outbreak of E. coli O157:H7 illnesses likely linked to romaine lettuce grown in California this fall. Preliminary traceback information indicates that ill people were exposed to romaine lettuce harvested in the Central Coast growing regions of Northern and Central California.
The six California counties FDA is including in this region are Monterey, San Benito, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz and Ventura; however, additional counties may be added as the FDA traceback develops.
Romaine harvested from locations outside of the California regions identified by the traceback investigation does not appear to be related to the current outbreak.
There is no recommendation for consumers or retailers to avoid using romaine lettuce that is certain to have been harvested from areas outside of the Central Coast growing regions of Northern and Central California. For example, romaine lettuce harvested from areas that include, but are not limited to the desert growing region near Yuma, the California desert growing region near Imperial County and Riverside County, the state of Florida, and Mexico, does not appear to be related to the current outbreak. Additionally, there is no evidence hydroponically and greenhouse-grown romaine is related to the current outbreak.
During this new stage of the investigation, it is vital that consumers and retailers have an easy way to identify romaine lettuce by both harvest date and harvest location. Labeling with this information on each bag of romaine or signage in stores where labels are not an option would easily differentiate for consumers romaine from unaffected growing regions.
Based on discussions with producers and distributors, romaine lettuce entering the market will now be labeled with a harvest location and a harvest date or labeled as being hydroponically or greenhouse-grown. If it does not have this information, consumers are advised against eating or using it.
