Dirty Irrigation Canal Water Tied To Romaine Lettuce E. Coli Outbreak That Spread To 36 States
While unable to link the largest outbreak since 2006 to a single farm in the Arizona's Yuma region, the Food and Drug Administration did find a genetic match to the bacteria in canals serving the area. The harvest season there has ended.
The Associated Press:
Romaine Lettuce Outbreak Tied To Tainted Irrigation Canal
Tainted irrigation water appears to be the source of a national food poisoning outbreak linked to romaine lettuce, health officials said Thursday. About 200 people were sickened in the E. coli outbreak and five people died. The outbreak, which started in the spring, is now over, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. (6/28)
The Washington Post:
Romaine Lettuce E. Coli Outbreak Is Over As New Evidence Points To Tainted Water
“More work needs to be done to determine just how and why this strain of E. coli 0157:H7 could have gotten into this body of water and how that led to contamination of romaine lettuce from multiple farms,” he said. FDA officials, who have been investigating the source of the outbreak since mid-March, are trying to determine whether canal water was used to irrigate the lettuce fields. The Yuma region — which includes farms across the Colorado River in southeastern California — grows the overwhelming majority of the lettuce and other leafy greens consumed in the United States in the winter months. (Sun, 6/28)
