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By Gabriella Borter and Gina Cherelus
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Romaine lettuce still had a place in salads at coffee shops and delicatessens in New York on Wednesday, despite a rare US public health warning asking consumers not to eat it because of its possible presence. E. coli contamination.
The general warning, triggered by an outbreak of E. coli in 11 states and in Canada that has left at least 50 people sick, was launched Tuesday by the US Food and Drug Administration and the US Centers for Disease Control and Disease Control. Prevention.
The CDC and industry representatives said that evidence indicated that the central coast of California was the likely source of the outbreak.
Grocery stores such as Whole Foods Market, owned by Amazon.com, and national salad retailers, such as Chopt and Fresh & Co, told Reuters they had stopped selling Roman as soon as this warning was issued.
However, some privately-owned stores claimed that romaine was still sold because officials did not specify the source of potentially contaminated lettuce, such as a farm or business.
"It's up to customers to choose whether to eat it or not," said Alex Hwang, Dali Market Manager in downtown Manhattan. "No matter what we have, it's the same thing we had yesterday, they ate it and we had no problem with that."
The CDC said that at least 32 people in 11 states, including two in New York, had become ill with E. coli between October 8 and October 31. [L2N1XV1SV] The Public Health Agency of Canada stated that she was investigating 18 cases of E. coli infection.
A total of 13 cases in both countries resulted in hospitalizations. No deaths have been reported.
US and Canadian alerts, as millions of Americans prepared their Thanksgiving Day menus, urged consumers, restaurants and retailers to get rid of all remaining Roman stocks and clean up their shelves. .
Given the onset of the first diseases reported in early October, the contaminated Roman would likely come from California, which ranks as the largest producer of American lettuce, said Wednesday to Reuters the spokesman of the FDA, Peter Cassell.
EXPIRE AND DISAPPEAR
On Wednesday, Reuters visited nine independent grocery stores and coffee shops in downtown Manhattan, where salad bar queues are typically long at lunchtime. All but one sold Romaine lettuce, some of which had been delivered on Wednesday.
"Nobody told us, we did not know it," said Irivia Spivey, who was responsible for preparing Korean coffee salads Mamaroo, while her manager was standing by her side.
A sample of 12 Reuters grocery stores and supermarkets, located in Chicago, Detroit and Denver, revealed that the Roman was removed from their shelves.
"As soon as I heard about the news yesterday, I threw everything in the trash that contained romaine lettuce – salads, the Roman itself," said Mike Fisayo, head of the South Loop Market. from Chicago.
Cory Lunde, a spokeswoman for the Western Growers Farmers Group, said the early start date and shipping schedules of the industry indicated that the Roman harvested in September on the central coast of the California, probably in the areas around Salinas or Santa Maria, would be the most likely source.
On the basis of what we know, contaminated lettuce has almost certainly expired and disappeared from the distribution chain even before voluntary withdrawals come into effect on Tuesday, Lunde said.
CDC spokesman, Tom Skinner, said the general scope of the lettuce alert was "unusual but certainly not unprecedented," citing a 2006 warning about contaminated spinach, the last time that "lettuce" was reported. an international opinion has been published for all types of food.
"We did this for the sake of caution, knowing that we are entering a holiday weekend that is very food-oriented," said Cassell.
(Reportage of Gabriella Borter and Gina Cherelus in New York, additional reportage of Steve Gorman in Los Angeles, Peter Szekely in New York, Nick Carey in Detroit, Renita Young in Chicago and Keith Coffman in Denver, edited by Bill Tarrant and Peter Cooney)
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