Pre-cut vegetables

This includes packaged salads. The outbreak record speaks for itself: 79 outbreaks in the last 23 years, the most recent being this spring’s romaine lettuce E. coli outbreak that sickened 197 people and killed five.

That was the biggest E. coli outbreak of any kind in the United States since the 2006 leafy spinach outbreak that infected 199.

In answering why romaine lettuce was involved in so many outbreaks, the FDA’s Dr Stic Harris probably covered lettuce and salads in general when he said, “It’s not something that’s cooked. There is no kill step (for the bacteria).”