Officials on Friday, April 20, said that consumers should avoid all types of romaine lettuce from southwestern Arizona due to a nationwide E. coli outbreak that’s left dozens of people ill.
“This warning now includes whole heads and hearts of romaine lettuce, in addition to chopped romaine and salads and salad mixes containing romaine,” the CDC said.
Previously, the agency said that consumers should avoid chopped romaine.
“This is a higher hospitalization rate than usual for E. coli O157:H7 infections, which is normally around 30 percent,” said the agency. Thirty-one “people out of 48 [cases] with available information (65 percent) have been hospitalized, including five who developed a type of kidney failure called hemolytic uremic syndrome,” the CDC reported.
The CDC says that 16 states have been impacted by the outbreak.
“Unless the source of the product is known, consumers anywhere in the United States who have any store-bought romaine lettuce at home should not eat it and should throw it away, even if some of it was eaten and no one has gotten sick. Product labels often do not identify growing regions; so, throw out any romaine lettuce if you’re uncertain about where it was grown. This includes whole heads and hearts of romaine, chopped romaine, and salads and salad mixes containing romaine lettuce. If you do not know if the lettuce is romaine, do not eat it and throw it away,” said the CDC.
It adds: “Before purchasing romaine lettuce at a grocery store or eating it at a restaurant, confirm with the store or restaurant that it is not chopped romaine lettuce from the Yuma, Arizona growing region. If you cannot confirm the source of the romaine lettuce, do not buy it or eat it.”
Restaurants and retailers, meanwhile, should not serve romaine lettuce or salad mixes containing the vegetable grown in Yuma, Arizona. They should also ask their suppliers about the source of the lettuce.
