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After four months, the largest epidemic of E. Coli in more than a decade is finally over. On June 28th, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that there were no new diseases as a result of the ingestion of the originally contaminated romaine lettuce of hatching.
Since mid-March, the CDC and the Food and Drug Administration have identified five deaths and 210 illnesses caused by E. coli infections related mainly to bagged prepackaged romaine.
For months, health officials knew that contaminated lettuce came from the Yuma, Arizona area, where most of the American lettuce is harvested during the winter. But they could not find the exact source of the pollution, and a number of farms in the area were involved.
Yesterday, the FDA announced to have made some progress in its case: new channel water samples around Yuma farms were tested positive for E. coli O157: H7, and they correspond to the strain of bacteria that caused the hatching. This suggests that dirty water may have been used to irrigate growing fields – but officials did not stop to say that they knew it for sure.
"These initial positive samples represent another piece of the puzzle," FDA chief Scott Gottlieb said in a statement. "There is still work to be done to determine how and why this strain of E. coli O157: H7 could have penetrated this water plane and how this has led to the contamination of several Romaine lettuce." farms. "
Different strains of E. coli, a bacterium, and most of them live in our guts and do not cause any damage. But the strain at the origin of the outbreak, E. coli O157, produces toxins dangerous to humans and particularly virulent. Bacteria are usually transmitted from animals to humans through animal droppings contaminated with food or water. Symptoms of the infection include cramps, vomiting, diarrhea and, rarely, kidney failure and death.
According to a June 28 update on the outbreak, nearly half of the patients intoxicated by food poisoning had to be hospitalized, and many developed a severe form of kidney failure . In total, the outbreak hit 36 states, with five deaths occurring in Arkansas, California, Minnesota and New York. The FDA reports that the latest deliveries of Yuma romaine lettuce were harvested on April 16, 2018 – the Yuma Greens are no longer sold or served longer.
But the tragedy should remind us of the health threat that our practical and prepackaged salads can pose.
Determining the exact cause of this outbreak was difficult because of the way we consume the salad today
Before we get into the why, let's be clear: most lettuce that we eat are safe to consume. However, lettuce has also become a major source of food poisoning.
One of the reasons why: The salad we eat today is very different from the salad our parents or grandparents have eaten. Instead of buying lettuce heads that we wash and rags ourselves, over the last two decades, pre-cut and bagged vegetable sales have exploded. These mixed greens are found in our refrigerators or in restaurants already washed and ready to be thrown into a salad bowl. But during treatment, living bacteria among leafy vegetables have a moist environment in which to flourish.
"When you pack and chop [salad] the bacteria just amplify – and when you ship them across the country, the bacteria have a chance to grow in the bag," Bill Marler, l & # 39, one of the main represents the families affected by this outbreak, said Vox after the outbreak declaration.
This is not the only reason why salads are a major source of food poisoning. We also eat them raw, which means that there is no cooking process to kill the pathogens. Contamination can occur when lettuce is harvested, or from animals or water in the fields – which may be the case in Yuma.
The packaging process also makes it more difficult to find the cause of the contamination and to prevent more people from getting sick. Different lettuces grown on different farms are mixed in bags that are distributed in supermarkets and restaurants throughout the country, so that food security officials must look for the common link between farms and suppliers
. The administration said earlier that we can never know the precise cause of E. coli contamination . In an incredibly complicated diagram released earlier this month, the agency has shown that a network of dozens of farms, processors, and distributors (all of whom remain nameless) have been involved in the business. current epidemic. Only a few cases of E. coli caused by whole head lettuce were attributed to a single farm.
We increased the risk of food poisoning with pre-washed lettuce
I asked Marler what lesson the public and health regulators could draw from these deaths, and he says that we must understand that our love of convenience a risk. When we eat salads that are prewashed and bagged, we increase the risk of food poisoning.
The best way to produce Roman may be to ship it in all its forms, leaving restaurants and individuals to wash themselves. Salad eaters may also want to ask if the convenience of the packaged salad is worth the extra risk.
Seriously, almost exactly the same scenario played in the United States a dozen or so years ago. In 2006, a giant E. coli outbreak linked to fresh bagged spinach sickened more than 200 people and killed three in 26 states. It was also conveniently packaged salad.
"Historically, large E. coli outbreaks related to leafy vegetables were all [caused by] pre-washed, chopped, bagged with salads," said Marler. "[These] leafy, leafy, washed, bagged and cut leafy vegetables that are shipped across the country are far more risky than people think."
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