E. coli outbreak traced to Yuma lettuce
CDC says bacteria has sickened at least 35 people in 11 states
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control has identified chopped romaine lettuce grown in the Yuma area as the source of an E. coli bacterial outbreak that has left 35 people ill in 11 states across the country.
The CDC’s Atlanta headquarters made the announcement at about noon Friday, Arizona time. No specific field, grower or other source has been identified yet, said CDC spokeswoman Laura Whitlock.
“The information we have as of today indicates the lettuce people ate was grown in Yuma, Arizona. But we haven’t identified a common supplier or distributor or brand at this time,” she said.
She said the CDC has been working closely with the Food and Drug Administration, which issued its own statement about the outbreak stating “preliminary information.”
The “Shiga toxin-producing” E. coli cases from the current outbreak date from March 22-31, as of Friday. No deaths have been reported. Of the cases reported, 22 patients were hospitalized and three have developed hemolytic uremic syndrome, a type of kidney failure.
The states with the highest number of reported cases are Idaho and Pennsylvania; the others affected are Washington, Missouri, Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, New York, Connecticut, New Jersey and Virginia.
Yuma’s agriculture industry, dominated by leafy green vegetables, has been found to generate about $2 billion a year in economic impact annually, but
food-safety alerts are rare, said Bobbi McDermott, a retired U.S. Department of Agriculture soil scientist who first came to the area in 1969.
“I don’t know exactly how they trace it back to Yuma. If it is, it’s the first incident I know about that came from the Yuma area in all the years I’ve been working with it,” she said.
Some local growers were alarmed by the CDC’s advisory to consumers across the U.S. to throw out any bagged, chopped romaine lettuce or salads containing chopped romaine currently in their refrigerators, and to be vigilant about finding out where chopped romaine they find in store coolers or restaurant salads came from before they purchased them.
“What we’re advising people is before they buy it in a store or eat it in a restaurant that they should ask that store or restaurant where the lettuce is from, and if it’s from the Yuma region, they should not buy it and they should not eat it,” Whitlock said.
Restaurants and retailers should check with their suppliers to see whether any chopped romaine came from Yuma, she added. There was no indication as of Friday that anyone got sick from eating lettuce sold as whole-head romaine lettuce or hearts of romaine, Whitlock said.
A joint statement was released Friday by five industry groups: Produce Marketing Association, Arizona Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement, California Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement, United Fresh and Western Growers.
“Our deepest sympathies go out to those who have been impacted by this outbreak,” the statement said. “We are cooperating fully with government and working closely to further identify the specific source of this outbreak.”
It continued, “The leafy greens community takes the responsibility for producing fresh produce very seriously. Leafy greens food-safety programs in both California and Arizona are the most rigorous in today’s produce industry. Both programs include mandatory farm food safety practices and frequent government audits to ensure those practices are being followed.”
Vicki Scott of Amigo Farms, who is a member of the Arizona Leafy Greens Food Safety Committee, said she’s a little “indignant” the CDC advisory warned people away from any chopped romaine from Yuma County, especially since the season is almost over and most lettuce is coming out of California.
“That’s of concern to all of us in the industry, that that can carry forward into next season. Our growing season is done, and there’s no more product coming out of Yuma, really. So to make a statement like that could be harmful to us in the long term, to have it come out in that fashion,” she said.
The food safety committee is funded by the state Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement and administered by the Arizona Department of Agriculture. It offers food-safety audits, training and certification to vegetable shippers from around the state.
“It’s not from negligence on our own, we’re obviously taking incredible steps to try to grow safe produce, and there are other contamination routes at play, rather than just saying the entire Yuma growing region,” Scott said. “It may have been a facility-related incident of contamination, it may have been a transportation-related contamination incident. So to just have the whole area, from my standpoint, that’s not exactly fair, is it? Do we really have enough information to say something like that?”
She said Friday’s news came without warning to the Yuma ag community, and that the possibility of people getting sick from local lettuce is “heartbreaking.”
Out of the 28 patients from the current outbreak who have been interviewed about the food they ate before getting sick, 26 reported eating chopped romaine lettuce, a much higher percentage than a similar survey of healthy people, the CDC said. The FDA then determined where that lettuce “most likely” came from, according to its statement.
“The FDA is still investigating where exactly the lettuce was grown, and it will be able to provide more information,” Whitlock said.
There is the potential for more people infected after March 27 to be diagnosed, so further illnesses could be reported over the next two to three weeks.
People who ingest food contaminated by E. coli usually develop symptoms 2 to 8 days later, with the average being three to four days. Most people infected with E. coli develop diarrhea (often bloody), severe stomach cramps and vomiting. Most patients recover within one week.
Those who develop hemolytic uremic syndrome, which can be life-threatening, can experience fever, abdominal pain, pale skin tone, fatigue and irritability, small, unexplained bruises or bleeding from the nose and mouth, and decreased urination. In this case, emergency care should be sought immediately.
The CDC said the current outbreak is unrelated to another E. coli cluster reported in the U.S. and Canada in December. The Canadian government linked those illnesses to romaine lettuce, but did not identify a growing region. The CDC only reported that outbreak as being caused by leafy green vegetables, and no specific food or region was identified.
The Yuma area has long been touted as the “winter lettuce (or winter vegetable) capital of the world,” and produces about 85 percent of all lettuce shipped to the U.S. and Canada from November through March.
University of Arizona agricultural economist George Frisvold, a co-author of the study released last year that found Arizona’s leafy greens industry generated $2 billion in 2015, said he expects the outbreak will have some effect on Yuma’s growing area.
He said several factors will dictate how severe the blow will be, and the fact only chopped romaine is implicated could be helpful: “Where you get larger consumer panics is when people don’t have specifics about product type (for example, if the notice was a vague notice about lettuce of all types without information about a source). Hopefully they’ll trace the source soon and get products off the market quickly. If that happens, impacts will likely be very small.”
Scott was more concerned about what kind of imprint Friday’s E. coli news could have, especially since no time frame was given for the advised Yuma avoidance, though she said there are a lot of unknowns.
“In the memory of a consumer, or a lettuce buyer, or a romaine buyer, that’s what sticks with them, don’t eat anything from Yuma,” she said. “So does that thought in your mind last for years, or do you quickly forget that? Or is this going to be in their memory when we come back next season? ‘Oh, I don’t want anything that comes out of Yuma.’”
Elston Grubaugh, general manager of the WelltonMohawk Irrigation and Drainage District, said this development comes at the end of a tough season overall for the Yuma lettuce industry, where warm winter weather here matured crops too quickly, while freezing winter weather in the Northeast and Midwest reduced demand for salad vegetables.
“We’ll just have to wait and see what the CDC says, how good it is at tracking this back. It certainly won’t be helpful to the industry at this point,” he said.