If you bought any romaine lettuce recently, it is advised that you throw it out right away. Romaine lettuce is currently unsafe to eat in any form, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday in a food safety alert.
“Consumers who have any type of romaine lettuce in their home should not eat it and should throw it away, even if some of it was eaten and no one has gotten sick,” the CDC said in the Food Safety Alert.
“This advice includes all types or uses of romaine lettuce, such as whole heads of romaine, hearts of romaine, and bags and boxes of precut lettuce and salad mixes that contain romaine, including baby romaine, spring mix, and Caesar salad,” the CDC said. “If you do not know if the lettuce is romaine or whether a salad mix contains romaine, do not eat it and throw it away.”
The announcement came in response to a new outbreak of illnesses caused by a particularly dangerous type of E. coli bacteria. The CDC told consumers to throw away any romaine lettuce they may already have purchased and restaurants should not serve it, stores should not sell it, and people should not buy it, no matter where or when the lettuce was grown.
Although the CDC is not claiming that all romaine contains the dangerous bacteria, investigators are unsure of where, when or how the contamination happened. As a result, all forms of romaine lettuce is suspect.
So far, the CDC reported that 32 people in 11 states have become sick from eating contaminated romaine. Of those, 13 have been hospitalized, with one patient suffering from a form of kidney failure. The Public Health Agency of Canada also reported that 18 people have been infected with the same strain of E. coli. in Ontario and Quebec. No deaths have been reported as of yet.
By: Maytinee Kramer
