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By Maggie Fox
California could be at the origin of the romaine lettuce implicated in an outbreak of E. coli infections that has left 32 people sick in 11 US states and Canada, said Wednesday at the head of the Food and Drug Administration.
The FDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warn people not to eat romaine lettuce during their investigations into the outbreak. This is very similar to an outbreak of E. Coli who killed one person and made at least 25 people sick last year, said Dr. Scott Gottlieb, Commissioner of the FDA. This epidemic has been attributed to green leafy vegetables, but not to romaine lettuce in particular.
"The strain that caused this outbreak is very similar to the one that caused it and the timing is exactly the same. So it's probably associated with California's end-of-season harvests, from which the majority of the Roman is currently on the market, "Gottlieb told NBC News.
"I think we will be able to isolate the area soon. There is lettuce coming in from Mexico, but most of what is on the market is the result of the end-of-season harvest in California right now. "
It is the second home of E. Coli tied to romaine lettuce this year. Last spring, an epidemic killed five people and made 210 patients in 36 states. It was eventually found in the water of a contaminated canal in an agricultural area of Yuma, Arizona.
Until a farm or region can be identified, CDC and the FDA state that it is safest to tell people not to eat romaine lettuce and to restaurants and shops to get rid of it. Other leafy vegetables seem to be safe.
Although it is the second epidemic related to the Roman this year, it is not clear if the romaine lettuce itself is more likely to be contaminated than it is to be infected. other vegetables, said Dr. Laura Gieraltowski, head of the foodborne outbreak control team at the CDC. "It's something we asked for," she said.
"It could have to do with how lettuce is shaped. (A head of) romaine lettuce is a bit open and maybe contaminated water can get into it more than in a head of iceberg lettuce or bunted cabbage. "
And like many other foods, Roman is often processed and reconditioned before being shipped to grocery stores and restaurants.
"Is Romaine somehow riskier? We do not think so, "Gottlieb said. "We think this is probably more related to the way it is packed." Thus, pieces of a single contaminated Roman head could be cut into pieces and spread into a number of packages.
What we do know is where E. coli comes from. Like many other bacteria that contaminate food, these come from feces. Wild animals can roam the fields or irrigation water can flow pastures or nearby feedlots where livestock is high. Contamination can spread further when products are harvested and passed through machines to clean, cut, cut and pack them.
Searching for the source is time consuming, which is why the FDA has not announced a mandatory recall yet, Gottlieb said. But he added that some producers and distributors planned to voluntarily recall their Roman-based products later Wednesday.
Although it may seem that there have been more food recalls recently, the FDA and the CDC say that it is not because more food is contaminated. "The food supply in the United States is one of the safest in the world," said Gieraltowski.
The FDA and the CDC are better able to find ways to link the 48 million cases of food poisoning that occur each year.
"It's not that there are more outbreaks. It's because we're identifying more epidemics, "Gottlieb said.
"A lot of what we are currently identifying would have been randomly selected people presenting to their doctors with gastrointestinal illness that we would never have associated with a common etiology (cause)," Gottlieb added.
DNA fingerprints have changed that.
"But now that we're taking samples and we're looking at bacteria … we're seeing the same virus, and CDC researchers have indicated that there's a common element, that there's a genetic fingerprint, that it comes from the same source. We find that it's the same bug. "
The next step will be to accelerate the slow process of tracking outbreaks by using better technology to keep an eye on food as they move from farms to distributors and stores, said Gottlieb.
Contaminated food is an extremely common problem. The CDC estimates that 48 million Americans are sick every year, accounting for one in six people. About 128,000 people are sick enough to be hospitalized and 3,000 die.
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