Romaine Lettuce - © menuitaliano.com

Massive Lettuce Recall: What’s In YOUR Fridge?

It seems to be happening every winter, now. Along comes the first sign of snow up here in the Great White North, and along comes the announcement that E. coli has been found in Lettuce grown in California, Texas or Arizona, and we all have to steer clear, to avoid unpleasant, even life-threatening consequences…

Romaine Harvest - © foodsafetyharvesting.comMiles and miles of Romaine waiting to be cleaned and
bagged in California’s Central Valley…

Romaine Lettuce is a staple with me, used daily around our house in many different applications. I even prefer it to Nappa Cabbage in my Asian Soups.

But once again, the red flags are up at Lettuce Beach, warning us not to consume any Romaine grown in California’s Central Valley – particularly Salinas and area. All the major US retailers have pulled all Lettuce from California’s Central Valley from their produce departments as the number of consumers reported to have been sickened by the bad Greens grows. Even before stores started removing CA Romaine from their shelves, there had been 40 related cases reported in 16 states, 28 of which led to hospital stays, and 5 of which resulted in kidney failure. So far, no deaths have been reported.

It’s worth noting that the Salinas Lettuce isn’t sold only in the U.S. Sister Erin came home from our local go-to produce source with a bag of it yesterday – from an all-Canadian Grocery chain. I’m glad I checked before I used it in last night’s supper.

How can you tell?

It’s easy to tell where your Romain was grown. All Romain out of the southern States carries a little sticker, either right at the top or at the bottom of the packaging, with the place name on it and a code that tells when it was picked and packed. They brought that in after the first round of tainted Lettuce emergencies a few years ago, to make it easier to track down the sources of future outbreaks.

You hadn’t heard?

If you’re an American, I’d guess you’ve been glued to the Impeachment news for the past couple of weeks, since the public testimony started. I don’t even remember seeing the Cali. E. Coli story stream across the news tickers at the bottom of the U.S. Networks’ screens over the past few days. Up here in Canada, we have CBC, Global and CTV – all-Canadian news outlets with a decidedly different focus. We get all the Canadian and world news (wars, floods, Price Andrew’s discommodation, etc.) plus the biggest U.S. headlines, in proportion to their importance to us (as estimated by the news directors at the various outlets). But we still had stories on every one of our networks about the danger inherent in Salinas Romaine. Why? Because it was believed that some of it might have been shipped up here. We take no chances. But it appears that American news outlets are waiting for someone to die from the latest outbreak of E. coli before elevating the story to the main news cycle.

Anyway…

Check that bag of Romaine in your fridge now, before you make sandwiches for anybody’s lunch today. And take no chances.

~ Maggie J.