Romaine Lettuce - the CDC says dispose of it immediately

[Zeus-cat]

From a Washington Post article:

"Romaine lettuce is unsafe to eat in any form, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday in a broad alert in response to a new outbreak of illnesses caused by a particularly dangerous type of E. coli contamination.

The CDC told consumers to throw away any romaine lettuce they may already have purchased. Restaurants should not serve it, stores should not sell it, and people should not buy it, no matter where or when the lettuce was grown. It doesn’t matter if it is chopped, whole head or part of a mix. All romaine should be avoided."

 

[DAllen]

Holy crap. Thats not good.

I wonder if this is what I can use as my excuse to not eat leafy greens lol

 

[Rex R]

use it for wadding?
Rex

 

[cwbullet]

Holy crap. Thats not good.

I wonder if this is what I can use as my excuse to not eat leafy greens lol

Actually, if you eat, you might take an "unholy crap"? E Coli is nasty stuff if you get the wrong strains.

 

[cwbullet]

https://www.jwatch.org/fw114796/201...lettuce?query=pfwTOC&jwd=000020016314&jspc=GP

From Oct. 8 to 31, 32 people from 11 states became ill from Shiga toxin–producing E. coli O157:H7. Thirteen patients were hospitalized and one developed hemolytic uremic syndrome. Canada is also reporting 18 illnesses with the same bacteria.

Shiga toxin can produce a dysentery syndrome that results in hemolytic uremic syndrome and kidney failure. Un "unholy crap" for sure.

 

[dr wogz]

Yeah, we got the same warnings last night.. so, it seems to be an "international" thing.. (But then again, 'our' Romaine is 'your' Romaine.. just a different package..)

 

[les]

While I would not want to get ill myself, I would question the probability of getting a piece of bad lettuce.
There are over 325 million people in the US. Let's say even only 10% ate something with lettuce over the 10/8 ~ 10/31 time frame, whether it be a salad or a sandwich / burger with lettuce on it. That means 32.5 million people ate lettuce. 32 reports of illness. So the chances of getting ill are about 1 in 1 million? The chances of being struck by lightning over a 1 year period is 1 in 960,000. So I have a greater chance of being hit by lightning than by getting ill from eating lettuce?
Granted, probably not every stomach upset was reported, but to say all lettuce (well, romaine lettuce - assume other types are ok?) should be chucked seems overkill?

 

[rcktnut]

Seems like a lot more contaminated food lately than normal. Lots of stuff even cereal. Wondering if this has anything to do with it??

The Trump administration is seeking to cut $4.7 billion from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s discretionary spending budget, according to a budget outline obtained by The Washington Post, but the administration so far has provided little information about how it will carry out the cuts.

The White House Office of Management and Budget’s 2018 spending blueprint requests $17.9 billion in funding for the USDA, down $4.7 billion from its 2017 funding level, or a reduction of about 21 percent. The programs facing cuts fall under “discretionary” spending, which includes food safety, rural development and conservation funding, research grants and international food aid. The cuts will not affect mandatory spending programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — SNAP, also known as “food stamps” — and crop subsidies for farmers.

 

[Charles_McG]

I think it has more to do with improvements in detection and identification. We can now collect huge wide ranging datasets and quickly do genetic scans to show that 30 odd people across about a dozen states all have a common strain, and aren’t just thirty random cases of food illness. That’s an incredible power to pick signal out of noise.

Our food safety systems have never been better.

Food has never been perfectly safe.

News has never traveled so fast.

People have never had such high expectations. Well, except for those who distrust those very systems.

 

[cwbullet]

While I would not want to get ill myself, I would question the probability of getting a piece of bad lettuce.
There are over 325 million people in the US. Let's say even only 10% ate something with lettuce over the 10/8 ~ 10/31 time frame, whether it be a salad or a sandwich / burger with lettuce on it. That means 32.5 million people ate lettuce. 32 reports of illness. So the chances of getting ill are about 1 in 1 million? The chances of being struck by lightning over a 1 year period is 1 in 960,000. So I have a greater chance of being hit by lightning than by getting ill from eating lettuce?
Granted, probably not every stomach upset was reported, but to say all lettuce (well, romaine lettuce - assume other types are ok?) should be chucked seems overkill?

Yes, but for the one person that gets the present of dialysis, is it worth the risk? This bug is not just a case of the trots. This bug is a serious health risk to include permanent disability and death.

The issue is usually the fact that someone on the packaging line is sick and did not wash their hands, faecal matter as fertilizer and it is not fully washed off, or a dual-use packaging facility that is contaminated.

 

[dr wogz]

Chuck,

You forgot to mention unclean processing equipment. From reports of past contaminants, I've always read that it was from improperly cleaned (neglected, lazy, careless, etc..) processing machines, the inner workings aren't cleaned as per their procedures.

We (where I work) have an NSF certification. It's amazing how deep they go to ensure cleanliness and to minimize entrapment areas. Some little device the plant shop produces to help solve some little problem might be (unintentionally) a bacteria magnet.

If I recall, the dairy industry has its own set of standards & guidelines, that far exceed current standards..

https://www.nsf.org/

 

[Bat-mite]

Beware "triple washed" salads. "Triple washed" usually means they dip it in a vat of water, then dip it in another vat, then a third. Then dip the next head in the same three vats of water, and so on. It is not washed in running water, and even if it were washed ten times, if E. coli is introduced into one or more of the vats, it stays there.

Thanks for the heads up, BTW. My wife just bought a head and we had it last night for dinner. Time to trash it, i guess.

 

[cwbullet]

Chuck,

You forgot to mention unclean processing equipment. From reports of past contaminants, I've always read that it was from improperly cleaned (neglected, lazy, careless, etc..) processing machines, the inner workings aren't cleaned as per their procedures.

We (where I work) have an NSF certification. It's amazing how deep they go to ensure cleanliness and to minimize entrapment areas. Some little device the plant shop produces to help solve some little problem might be (unintentionally) a bacteria magnet.

If I recall, the dairy industry has its own set of standards & guidelines, that far exceed current standards..

https://www.nsf.org/

True. Unclean processing equipment usually happens because of 1,2,3 above. As a physician trained in preventative medicine with the Army, I often have to assist of Preventative Medicine physicians with inspection of food sources in exotic lands (Kuwait, Israel, Egypt, Kosovo, Iraq, Albania, Croatia, Serbia, and Macedonia). The stuff I have seen would gag a dog off a gut wagon. I am sure the conditions south of the border and other less developed are similar or worse. I am surprised this does not happen more often. That is probably a testament to our preventative measures.

Remember, this sort of outbreak is the reason Chi Chi's Restaurants went belly up.

 

[dhbarr]

One of my cubscouts lost a lung this fall due to E. Coli complications. Thank goodness 8 weeks of modern medicine was able to save most of the rest of him.

 

[MClark]

A coworkers family owns 700 acres somewhere near Yuma AZ where a lot of Romaine lettuce is grown. They lease the land to a farmer who does the hard work. He said the major cause for contamination is wild animals crapping is the fields. They have a protocol if animal (deer, javelina, coyotes) tracks are seen they stop picking, Mark a wide swath either side of path and don't harvest the area. A major portion of the land is high fenced to keep the deer out but they get in anyway. The food source it too tempting. Big deer jump the fence, javelina dig under and coyotes go through the javelina holes. Higher fence and concrete on the bottom is cost prohibitive.
Second problem is idiot farm workers crapping in fields..

M

 

[DAllen]

Second problem is idiot farm workers crapping in fields..

Ummm...yuck.

I'm going to bet that's the bigger problem. Don't they have porta johns out there? There are a ton of fruit and veggie farms where I live and I see porta potties in almost every field...

 

[MClark]

Ummm...yuck.

I'm going to bet that's the bigger problem. Don't they have porta johns out there? There are a ton of fruit and veggie farms where I live and I see porta potties in almost every field...

Yes they have porta potties.
These people don't go around thinking.

 

[ericm541]

This good to know, i eat chopped romaine lettuce that comes in a small bag every week usually 4-6 times. It's funny i found this news on the rocketry forum and nothing about it on my yahoo news i see before opening mail.

 

[les]

Yes, but for the one person that gets the present of dialysis, is it worth the risk? This bug is not just a case of the trots. This bug is a serious health risk to include permanent disability and death.

I agree most issues are related to improper handling, and probably more so that in trying to be more organic, farmers have moved from chemical fertilizers to manure. Crops themselves do not have e coli - it come from being sprayed with e coli contaminated manure.

And my only point is the risk is small. But in life all things have risks. I looked up on the web that around 2015 there were about 2000 deaths per billion vehicle miles. Assuming you drive 10,000 miles in a year, your chance of death is 1 out of 50 (if I did my math right - 2000 deaths/billion mile x 10000 miles). Does that mean we should trash all of our cars? PS - I admit this number seems low to me....

Just saying it is up to people to decide what they want to do, but overall the risk is low for running into an issue.

 

[Bat-mite]

I hear you, but those numbers would not comfort me of one of my kids got sick when I could have just thrown away the lettuce.

 

[cwbullet]

Just to correct one statement. E Coli is found in nearly all manure. Some E Coli is pathogenic and some is not. I do not use natural manure fertilizer for this reason. If I fertilize my crops, naturally, it is with composted table scraps. Although my table scraps may be contaminated. It is unlikely.

 

[Zeus-cat]

I agree most issues are related to improper handling, and probably more so that in trying to be more organic, farmers have moved from chemical fertilizers to manure. Crops themselves do not have e coli - it come from being sprayed with e coli contaminated manure.

And my only point is the risk is small. But in life all things have risks. I looked up on the web that around 2015 there were about 2000 deaths per billion vehicle miles. Assuming you drive 10,000 miles in a year, your chance of death is 1 out of 50 (if I did my math right - 2000 deaths/billion mile x 10000 miles). Does that mean we should trash all of our cars? PS - I admit this number seems low to me....

Just saying it is up to people to decide what they want to do, but overall the risk is low for running into an issue.

But replacing the lettuce will only cost you a few dollars unless you have a ridiculous amount of it. I just bought some spinach to replace the romaine I have in my frig. I'll let the racoons and possums have the romaine and take the risk.

Giving up my car means I fundamentally change what I can do. No more rocket launches, going to the grocery store, or any store, becomes very difficult. It would difficult for me to do most of the things I do.

The difference is a few dollars for throwing out lettuce as compared to massive changes in my life if I quit driving or riding in cars.

 

[lawndartman]

If you think this is bull... eat up! Don't use your seatbelt, it is up to you. Trash your car? OK Info is out there for you. You make the call.