http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/08/us/08lettuce.html
[quote author=New York Times]Tainted Lettuce Linked to Illness in Three States
A rare strain of E. coli never before associated with foodborne illness in the United States has sickened 29 people in three states, public health officials said Friday. The outbreak has been tied to romaine lettuce served in restaurants, school cafeterias and deli and supermarket salad bars.
Freshway Foods, an Ohio company, recalled the lettuce on Thursday. It said the lettuce had been sold primarily to food service and wholesale customers. The recall did not involve any bagged or mixed lettuce sold in supermarket produce sections, the company said, although some supermarkets appeared to have used the romaine in salad bars.
Officials traced the illness to a bacterial strain known as E. coli O145, which is different from the more widely known E. coli O157:H7, which has been associated with outbreaks linked to ground beef, leafy greens and other foods.
“This is the first time this particular type of E. coli has been associated with a foodborne outbreak,” said Dr. Robert Tauxe, a deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Dr. Tauxe said the O145 outbreak “cements it in place as a cause of foodborne disease we need to be worried about.” He added, “Very little is known about it.”
Dr. Tauxe said the bacterium appeared to be a particularly virulent strain capable of causing severe illness.
The C.D.C. said there were 19 confirmed cases and 10 probable cases of people who were sickened, all in Ohio, Michigan and New York. Twelve people have been hospitalized, and of those, three have developed a type of kidney failure known as hemolytic uremic syndrome, which can be fatal. Those who become ill from the E. coli strain can also get mild to severe diarrhea.
Many of those who were sickened are students at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Ohio State University in Columbus and Daemon College in Amherst, N.Y., The Associated Press said. Some high school students in Dutchess County, N.Y., also fell ill, officials said.
The rare strain of E. coli was identified by a New York State Health Department laboratory when it tested a previously unopened bag of Freshway Foods romaine lettuce that came from a school cafeteria in Dutchess County.
While illnesses have been identified in only three states, Freshway said that the lettuce had been sent to customers in 23 states and the District of Columbia. The company said the lettuce was sold for use in salad bars at Kroger, Giant Eagle, Ingles and Marsh supermarkets.
The recall applied to bags of romaine from Freshway with “use by” dates of May 12 or earlier.
Officials said the wave of illnesses may have played itself out, since the last known case involved a person who fell ill in late April.
Dr. Tauxe said, however, said that it was likely that many more people than the 29 identified so far had been sickened, since few hospitals or health departments test for E. coli O145.
He said it was also possible that there had been previous cases of foodborne illness involving the bacterial strain, but that those, too, had gone undetected because of a lack of proper testing. Dr. Tauxe said two small previous outbreaks caused by the O145 strain were known in this country, but neither was linked to food.
Devon Beer, a vice president of Freshway Foods, said the company had traced the tainted lettuce to a grower in Yuma, Ariz.
The outbreak underscored growing concerns over food safety, in particular illnesses related to E. coli bacteria.
Food safety experts have been pressing for federal officials to pay more attention to a wider range of E. coli bacteria, and the new outbreak is likely to bolster that effort. “What it says is, This is getting really complicated, folks,” said Dr. J. Glenn Morris Jr., the director of the Emerging Pathogens Institute of the University of Florida.
William Marler, a lawyer specializing in such cases, said that while there were no previous foodborne outbreaks associated with the O145 strain in this country, one was reported in Belgium in 2007 in which 12 people fell ill.
A version of this article appeared in print on May 8, 2010, on page A10 of the New York edition.[/quote]
Apparently Yuma, AZ produces 80% of the countries supply of lettuce or something. Many of the comments in various sites picking this up are trying to make a connection between the recent immigration legislation, and the resultant highly upset immigrants still tending the lettuce fields that are suddenly contaminated with a rare and often fecal related bacteria. Yikes and Yuck.
Oddly enough, here is an article from 2007 touting Yuma's reputation for E-Coli free lettuce, and why it is so unlikely to have an outbreak in that location:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7085652
[quote author=NPR] Yuma's Lettuce Fields Remain Free of E. Coli
by CARRIE KAHN
January 30, 2007
America gets much of its winter lettuce from the fields of Yuma, Ariz. But unlike the country's other big lettuce region — California's Salinas Valley — Yuma's crops haven't been hit with E. coli contamination. Produce companies are learning new lessons about avoiding future outbreaks.
Copyright © 2007 National Public Radio®. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required.
MELISSA BLOCK, host:
Moving on to last year's E. coli outbreaks, which killed three people and made hundreds sick around the country. That crisis had a huge impact on California's lettuce and spinach growers. And across the border in Arizona, growers have been making changes, even though produce from fields there have not been linked to any outbreaks.
NPR's Carrie Kahn reports.
CARRIE KAHN: For eight months of the year, Salinas, California, brags that it's the salad bowl of America, but from November to March the celebration moves to Yuma, Arizona, which produces 90 percent of the country's winter lettuce.
(Soundbite of country music)
KAHN: At Yuma's annual lettuce fair, square dancers entertain on the Parsley Stage off Maine Street. A cold wind puts a damper on some of the fairs usual festivities, like lettuce bowling in the world's longest salad bar. But the produce business here is hot.
Mr. KURT NOLTE (University of Arizona): Well, I really think the environment is in our favor.
KAHN: Kurt Nolte is an ag specialist with the University of Arizona.
Mr. NOLTE: The temperatures are cool here, relative humidity is rather low.
KAHN: Irrigation water comes out of the chilly Colorado River, and unlike much of California, there's virtually no livestock near Yuma's fields. E. coli is often found in cow manure.
Mr. NOLTE: So we have a lot of factors here that kind of play into the growers' favor.
KAHN: Factors that make Yuma a great place to grow crops and a not so great place for E. coli. The deadly strain of the bacteria thrives where it's hot and humid. Yuma may be the desert, but in the winter months, it's cold and dry. Still, Yuma's lettuce producers aren't relying solely on geography to keep their operations E. coli free.
Mr. GREG KUMAR(ph) (Natural Selection): When you walk into this facility there is a hand dip and a foot dip that you need to use upon entry. So it's on our left here.
KAHN: At the Natural Selection's processing plant in Yuma, chlorine disinfectant is everywhere. The smell of bleach stings your nose. During last fall's E. coli outbreak, the contaminated spinach was processed in Natural Selection's Salinas Valley plant. Since then, food safety engineer Greg Kumar says extensive training and new washing machines are in place.
Mr. KUMAR: The product goes into this (unintelligible) system and then it goes under these rolling wheels.
KAHN: Baby lettuce leaves drop off a conveyor belt into huge vats of bubbling chlorinated water. A large rolling metal drum keeps the leaves submerged in the treated water. The produce is then dried and bagged and Kumar says it's tested once again for E. coli before leaving the plant.
All that washing and testing is part of new efforts to salvage the three billion dollar a year bagged produce business. The industry is rebounding after last year's outbreaks, but some experts question whether these ready-to-eat bags of leafy greens may be leading to increased outbreaks, especially when one head of tainted lettuce chopped up and put in multiple bags could turn an isolated contamination into a widespread event.
Jack Guzewich(ph) with the FDA Center for Food Safety says while the risk of illness is small, processor have to be careful.
Mr. JACK GUZEWICH (FDA Center for Food Safety): If anything, they potentially could have compounded the problem if they spread the contamination around or at least didn't eliminate the problem.
KAHN: And the concerns aren't limited to the processing plants. Researchers are also looking into the fields.
Mr. JESUS METRA(ph): (Speaking foreign language)
KAHN: Jesus Metra works an iceberg lettuce field south of Yuma.
Mr. METRA: (Speaking foreign language)
KAHN: He peels off the outer leaf, cuts out the core, and then tosses the lettuce up on the huge harvesting machine idling in front of him.
Mr. METRA: (Speaking foreign language)
KAHN: He says that lettuce is now ready for a hamburger. But some experts worry that cutting and coring lettuce in the field may create more ways for the bacteria to get on or even inside the leaves. While health experts argue over how E. coli contamination occurs, the FDA is considering regulating the fresh produce industry.
So is the state of California. And Fresh Express, one of the largest bagged salad producers, has just pledged two million dollars to search for answers. Charles Sweat, CEO of Natural Selection Food, says all of that will take time. In the meanwhile, he says, consumers want assurances.
Mr. CHARLES SWEAT (CEO, Natural Selection): We're not going to wait for the science to validate what needs to be done. We're going to build our layers of prevention in place for our products today, because we think it's the right thing to do.
KAHN: Another thing may be to keep studying the fields of Yuma. University of Arizona's Kurt Nolte says the region is a natural laboratory to study pathogenic E. coli.
Mr. NOLTE: We haven't detected it in the hundred years that we've been growing lettuce.
KAHN: Short of bottling Yuma's weather and terrain, Nolte says other growing regions will just have to wait for science to decipher E. coli's many mysteries.
Carrie Kahn, NPR News.[/quote]
[quote author=New York Times]Tainted Lettuce Linked to Illness in Three States
A rare strain of E. coli never before associated with foodborne illness in the United States has sickened 29 people in three states, public health officials said Friday. The outbreak has been tied to romaine lettuce served in restaurants, school cafeterias and deli and supermarket salad bars.
Freshway Foods, an Ohio company, recalled the lettuce on Thursday. It said the lettuce had been sold primarily to food service and wholesale customers. The recall did not involve any bagged or mixed lettuce sold in supermarket produce sections, the company said, although some supermarkets appeared to have used the romaine in salad bars.
Officials traced the illness to a bacterial strain known as E. coli O145, which is different from the more widely known E. coli O157:H7, which has been associated with outbreaks linked to ground beef, leafy greens and other foods.
“This is the first time this particular type of E. coli has been associated with a foodborne outbreak,” said Dr. Robert Tauxe, a deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Dr. Tauxe said the O145 outbreak “cements it in place as a cause of foodborne disease we need to be worried about.” He added, “Very little is known about it.”
Dr. Tauxe said the bacterium appeared to be a particularly virulent strain capable of causing severe illness.
The C.D.C. said there were 19 confirmed cases and 10 probable cases of people who were sickened, all in Ohio, Michigan and New York. Twelve people have been hospitalized, and of those, three have developed a type of kidney failure known as hemolytic uremic syndrome, which can be fatal. Those who become ill from the E. coli strain can also get mild to severe diarrhea.
Many of those who were sickened are students at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Ohio State University in Columbus and Daemon College in Amherst, N.Y., The Associated Press said. Some high school students in Dutchess County, N.Y., also fell ill, officials said.
The rare strain of E. coli was identified by a New York State Health Department laboratory when it tested a previously unopened bag of Freshway Foods romaine lettuce that came from a school cafeteria in Dutchess County.
While illnesses have been identified in only three states, Freshway said that the lettuce had been sent to customers in 23 states and the District of Columbia. The company said the lettuce was sold for use in salad bars at Kroger, Giant Eagle, Ingles and Marsh supermarkets.
The recall applied to bags of romaine from Freshway with “use by” dates of May 12 or earlier.
Officials said the wave of illnesses may have played itself out, since the last known case involved a person who fell ill in late April.
Dr. Tauxe said, however, said that it was likely that many more people than the 29 identified so far had been sickened, since few hospitals or health departments test for E. coli O145.
He said it was also possible that there had been previous cases of foodborne illness involving the bacterial strain, but that those, too, had gone undetected because of a lack of proper testing. Dr. Tauxe said two small previous outbreaks caused by the O145 strain were known in this country, but neither was linked to food.
Devon Beer, a vice president of Freshway Foods, said the company had traced the tainted lettuce to a grower in Yuma, Ariz.
The outbreak underscored growing concerns over food safety, in particular illnesses related to E. coli bacteria.
Food safety experts have been pressing for federal officials to pay more attention to a wider range of E. coli bacteria, and the new outbreak is likely to bolster that effort. “What it says is, This is getting really complicated, folks,” said Dr. J. Glenn Morris Jr., the director of the Emerging Pathogens Institute of the University of Florida.
William Marler, a lawyer specializing in such cases, said that while there were no previous foodborne outbreaks associated with the O145 strain in this country, one was reported in Belgium in 2007 in which 12 people fell ill.
A version of this article appeared in print on May 8, 2010, on page A10 of the New York edition.[/quote]
Apparently Yuma, AZ produces 80% of the countries supply of lettuce or something. Many of the comments in various sites picking this up are trying to make a connection between the recent immigration legislation, and the resultant highly upset immigrants still tending the lettuce fields that are suddenly contaminated with a rare and often fecal related bacteria. Yikes and Yuck.
Oddly enough, here is an article from 2007 touting Yuma's reputation for E-Coli free lettuce, and why it is so unlikely to have an outbreak in that location:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7085652
[quote author=NPR] Yuma's Lettuce Fields Remain Free of E. Coli
by CARRIE KAHN
January 30, 2007
America gets much of its winter lettuce from the fields of Yuma, Ariz. But unlike the country's other big lettuce region — California's Salinas Valley — Yuma's crops haven't been hit with E. coli contamination. Produce companies are learning new lessons about avoiding future outbreaks.
Copyright © 2007 National Public Radio®. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required.
MELISSA BLOCK, host:
Moving on to last year's E. coli outbreaks, which killed three people and made hundreds sick around the country. That crisis had a huge impact on California's lettuce and spinach growers. And across the border in Arizona, growers have been making changes, even though produce from fields there have not been linked to any outbreaks.
NPR's Carrie Kahn reports.
CARRIE KAHN: For eight months of the year, Salinas, California, brags that it's the salad bowl of America, but from November to March the celebration moves to Yuma, Arizona, which produces 90 percent of the country's winter lettuce.
(Soundbite of country music)
KAHN: At Yuma's annual lettuce fair, square dancers entertain on the Parsley Stage off Maine Street. A cold wind puts a damper on some of the fairs usual festivities, like lettuce bowling in the world's longest salad bar. But the produce business here is hot.
Mr. KURT NOLTE (University of Arizona): Well, I really think the environment is in our favor.
KAHN: Kurt Nolte is an ag specialist with the University of Arizona.
Mr. NOLTE: The temperatures are cool here, relative humidity is rather low.
KAHN: Irrigation water comes out of the chilly Colorado River, and unlike much of California, there's virtually no livestock near Yuma's fields. E. coli is often found in cow manure.
Mr. NOLTE: So we have a lot of factors here that kind of play into the growers' favor.
KAHN: Factors that make Yuma a great place to grow crops and a not so great place for E. coli. The deadly strain of the bacteria thrives where it's hot and humid. Yuma may be the desert, but in the winter months, it's cold and dry. Still, Yuma's lettuce producers aren't relying solely on geography to keep their operations E. coli free.
Mr. GREG KUMAR(ph) (Natural Selection): When you walk into this facility there is a hand dip and a foot dip that you need to use upon entry. So it's on our left here.
KAHN: At the Natural Selection's processing plant in Yuma, chlorine disinfectant is everywhere. The smell of bleach stings your nose. During last fall's E. coli outbreak, the contaminated spinach was processed in Natural Selection's Salinas Valley plant. Since then, food safety engineer Greg Kumar says extensive training and new washing machines are in place.
Mr. KUMAR: The product goes into this (unintelligible) system and then it goes under these rolling wheels.
KAHN: Baby lettuce leaves drop off a conveyor belt into huge vats of bubbling chlorinated water. A large rolling metal drum keeps the leaves submerged in the treated water. The produce is then dried and bagged and Kumar says it's tested once again for E. coli before leaving the plant.
All that washing and testing is part of new efforts to salvage the three billion dollar a year bagged produce business. The industry is rebounding after last year's outbreaks, but some experts question whether these ready-to-eat bags of leafy greens may be leading to increased outbreaks, especially when one head of tainted lettuce chopped up and put in multiple bags could turn an isolated contamination into a widespread event.
Jack Guzewich(ph) with the FDA Center for Food Safety says while the risk of illness is small, processor have to be careful.
Mr. JACK GUZEWICH (FDA Center for Food Safety): If anything, they potentially could have compounded the problem if they spread the contamination around or at least didn't eliminate the problem.
KAHN: And the concerns aren't limited to the processing plants. Researchers are also looking into the fields.
Mr. JESUS METRA(ph): (Speaking foreign language)
KAHN: Jesus Metra works an iceberg lettuce field south of Yuma.
Mr. METRA: (Speaking foreign language)
KAHN: He peels off the outer leaf, cuts out the core, and then tosses the lettuce up on the huge harvesting machine idling in front of him.
Mr. METRA: (Speaking foreign language)
KAHN: He says that lettuce is now ready for a hamburger. But some experts worry that cutting and coring lettuce in the field may create more ways for the bacteria to get on or even inside the leaves. While health experts argue over how E. coli contamination occurs, the FDA is considering regulating the fresh produce industry.
So is the state of California. And Fresh Express, one of the largest bagged salad producers, has just pledged two million dollars to search for answers. Charles Sweat, CEO of Natural Selection Food, says all of that will take time. In the meanwhile, he says, consumers want assurances.
Mr. CHARLES SWEAT (CEO, Natural Selection): We're not going to wait for the science to validate what needs to be done. We're going to build our layers of prevention in place for our products today, because we think it's the right thing to do.
KAHN: Another thing may be to keep studying the fields of Yuma. University of Arizona's Kurt Nolte says the region is a natural laboratory to study pathogenic E. coli.
Mr. NOLTE: We haven't detected it in the hundred years that we've been growing lettuce.
KAHN: Short of bottling Yuma's weather and terrain, Nolte says other growing regions will just have to wait for science to decipher E. coli's many mysteries.
Carrie Kahn, NPR News.[/quote]
