Grocers and restaurants in Colo. pull romaine lettuce
Reaction to federal health officials’ warning of a new E. coli outbreak linked to romaine lettuce was swift Tuesday afternoon at the Mellow Mushroom on Denver’s 16th Street Mall.
Fewer than two hours after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned Americans to avoid eating romaine lettuce until further notice, the popular pizza restaurant — alerted by its Atlanta-based corporate staff — had stopped serving romaine on its salads.
“We are aware of it. For safety’s sake, we are not selling our spring mix or romaine,” said Andrew Culp, an assistant manager at the eatery.
The FDA announced Tuesday that it is working with officials in Canada on the outbreak, which has sickened 32 people in 11 states in the U.S. and 18 people in the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. No deaths have been reported, but 13 of the people who became sick in the U.S. were hospitalized. The last reported illness was on Oct. 31. And at least one person in the U.S. has developed a type of kidney failure.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control is urging everyone to discard all romaine lettuce and romaine lettuce products, including salad mixes and bagged brands, even if the food has been partially eaten and hasn’t made anyone sick. Refrigerator drawers and shelves where the lettuce was stored should be cleaned and sanitized, the CDC said.
No common grower, supplier, distributor or brand of romaine lettuce has been identified as the source of illness. An investigation is ongoing.
The strain identified is different than the one linked to romaine earlier this year, but it appears similar to one linked to leafy greens last year.
FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said the agency didn’t have enough information to request suppliers issue a recall, but he said supermarkets and restaurants should withdraw romaine products until the contamination can be identified.
He said FDA wanted to issue a warning before people gathered for Thanksgiving meals, where the potential for exposure could increase. “We did feel some pressure to draw conclusions as quickly as we could,” he said.
Grocery chain King Soopers, the division of Kroger headquartered in Denver, undertook the massive effort of pulling romaine, and romaine lettuce mixes, off of store shelves.
Adam Williamson, a King Soopers spokesman, said although the FDA announcement was an advisement, and not an official recall, the grocery chain was “being proactive” and pulling all romaine products.
“Our No. 1 priority is protecting the community that we serve; that’s why we’re being proactive rather than reactive,” Williamson said.
Store staffs are scrutinizing a wide product line, making sure that any partial romaine products are not overlooked. “What we’re working through right now is making sure all our bases are covered,” Williamson said.
Since the illness in question is E.coli, all of the lettuce pulled from the shelves will be “destroyed,” he added.
Tracing the source of contaminated lettuce can be difficult because it’s often repackaged by middlemen, said Sarah Sorscher, deputy director of regulatory affairs at the Center for Science in the Public Interest. That can mean the entire industry becomes implicated in outbreaks, even if not all products are contaminated.
Washing lettuce won’t ensure that contaminated lettuce is safe, Sorscher said.
Infections from E. coli can cause symptoms including severe stomach cramps, diarrhea and vomiting. Most people recover within a week, but some illnesses can last longer and be more severe.
Most romaine sold this time of year is grown in California, Gottlieb said. The romaine lettuce linked to the E. coli outbreak earlier this year was from Yuma, Ariz. Tainted irrigation water appeared to be the source of that outbreak, which sickened about 200 people and killed five.
The FDA’s blanket warning in the current outbreak is broader and more direct than the ones issued in the earlier outbreak, said Robert Whitaker, chief science officer for the Produce Marketing Association. In the earlier outbreak, the warnings about romaine from Yuma might have been confusing, he said.
Whitaker said the industry group told members they should cooperate with the FDA and stop supplying romaine lettuce, especially since people have been told to stop buying and eating it.
Health officials have also been reminding people to properly handle and cook their Thanksgiving birds amid a salmonella outbreak linked to raw turkey.