Stores pull romaine lettuce after E. Coli reports
325 views · Published 26 November 2018 · 1:17 · Indexed 22 September 2026
Channel: AP Archive · 2018 · News & Politics
(21 Nov 2018) Health officials in the U.S. and Canada told people on Tuesday to stop eating romaine lettuce because of a new E. coli outbreak, prompting grocery stores to remove the product from their shelves just days before Thanksgiving. In Alameda, California, Alameda Natural Grocery produce buyer Gina Giordano says she was told to also throw away any produce that touched romaine. "It's pretty wasteful around Thanksgiving especially," she said. "I mean we're ordering up and heavy on all of this product to kind of meet the needs for everybody and especially around something where we should be giving thanks." Customers were mostly accepting the action. "I mean nobody wants to get e. coli on Thanksgiving or ever," said shopper Janet Peterson. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it is working with officials in Canada on the outbreak, which has sickened 32 people in 11 states and 18 people in the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The strain identified is different than the one linked to romaine earlier this year but appears similar to last year's outbreak linked to leafy greens. US Food and Drug Administration officials said the agency doesn't have enough information to ask suppliers for a recall, but he suggested that supermarkets and restaurants should withdraw romaine until the source of the contamination can be identified. People are also being advised to throw out any romaine they have at home. In Canada, officials issued similar warnings to the two provinces where people were sickened. They said there was no evidence to suggest people in other parts of the country had been affected. Most romaine sold this time of year is grown in California. The romaine lettuce linked to the E. coli outbreak earlier this year was from Yuma, Arizona. Tainted irrigation water appeared to be the source of that outbreak, which sickened about 200 people and killed five. No deaths have been reported in the current outbreak, but 13 people in the U.S. and six in Canada have been hospitalized. The last reported U.S. illness was on Oct. 31, while and the most recent illness in Canada was early this month. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter: https://twitter.com/AP_Archive Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/APArchives Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/APNews/ You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/c0bdd9dc133de14aa3d04faf611a6eb3
