[ad_1]
Breaking News Emails
Receive last minute alerts and special reports. News and stories that matter, delivered the mornings of the week.
By Maggie Fox
Romaine lettuce is healthy to consume as long as it does not come from the growing region of California's central coast, health officials said Monday.
Until now, an epidemic of E. Coli linked to romaine lettuce has made sick 43 people in 12 US states and 22 more in Canada, the Food and Drug Administration announced.
The FDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have announced that they have reduced the amount of suspected lettuce to lettuce harvested in northern and central California. They still do not have enough information to name a specific producer or distributor, but said that consumers could start looking for the popular lettuce again.
Last week, the CDC and the FDA told people not to eat romaine lettuce and said the stores should remove it from the shelves.
But, "During the Thanksgiving holiday, the FDA has continued to investigate the outbreak.Our investigation at this point suggests that romaine lettuce associated with the outbreak is from areas of California that are growing crops. romaine lettuce during the summer, and that hatching appears on the "end-of-season" romaine lettuce harvested in these regions, "said in a statement FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb.
So that people can eat romaine with confidence. "If you do not know where your romaine lettuce comes from, do not eat it," the CDC said in a statement.
"It is not recommended to consumers or retailers to avoid using romaine lettuce that has been harvested in areas outside the production area of the north central coast and from central California, "the FDA added.
"For example, romaine lettuce harvested in areas that include, but are not limited to the desert wine region located near Yuma, the California desert wine region located near Imperial County and Riverside County, in the state of Florida and Mexico, does not seem to be related to the current epidemic. In addition, there is no evidence that hydroponic and greenhouse-grown Roman is related to the current epidemic. "
There was a "clean break" with the Roman, so the product that could have been contaminated probably disappeared from the stores, Gottlieb said.
He said the FDA was working with the food industry to find better ways to label the origin of lettuce and other fresh produce. This will help identify the source of future outbreaks of foodborne origin.
"Knowledge of the growing origin of products will continue to play an important role in allowing consumers to avoid contaminated products and facilitating market withdrawals and retirements," Gottlieb said.
The FDA has urged stores and distributors to label lettuce according to the origin.
"Based on discussions with producers and distributors, romaine lettuce introduced to the market will now be labeled with a harvest location and harvest date, or labeled as a hydroponic or greenhouse crop. If he does not have this information, you should neither eat it nor use it, "the FDA advised.
E. coli is normally harmless, but there is a strain called E. coli 0157: H7 that produces a compound called Shiga toxin that can make people very sick. The CDC says that 16 people have been hospitalized in this outbreak and that one of them suffers from a serious kidney disease called hemolytic uremic syndrome.
This epidemic is linked to an epidemic a year ago that was not directly related to the romaine lettuce by the US authorities, but only to the green salad. Canadian authorities connected it to the Roman at that time.
A separate outbreak of E. Coli in spring romaine lettuce was attributed to contaminated water from an irrigation canal in Yuma, Arizona.
Foodborne illnesses are very common. The CDC estimates that 48 million Americans are suffering from a foodborne illness each year. Of these, 128,000 are hospitalized and 3,000 die.
[ad_2]
Source link
