News

US romaine contamination problems: FDA says better labeling starts now

November 27, 2018

Federal food safety authorities at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and state health officials have taken some heat for the decision last week to pull all romaine lettuce from the nation's food stream upon news that it was the suspected source of a multistate outbreak of E. coli O157:H7 infections. Critics have argued the action was unnecessarily broad, creating severe income consequences for romaine lettuce farmers nationally. 

Late Monday, the FDA defended the actions authorities took citing the extent of the outbreak, which a news release said has thus far sickened 43 people in 12 states, as well as 22 people in Canada, a news release said. The agency said that since federal health officials only knew that it was U.S.-grown romaine causing the illnesses, rather than which specific romaine lettuce farm the tainted produce came from, they had to take quick, decisive and all-encompassing action, the release said. 

Since they've now determined the bad lettuce appears to have been grown and  harvested at the end of the summer growing season in the Central Coast region of California, they've said the problem is likely contained since that romaine was destroyed and future supplies will come from other areas of the country. But the FDA said a lot of product could have been saved if the U.S. mandated clearer labeling on such produce specifying the source of romaine and date of harvest. 

That's why the FDA said it has met with U.S. romaine distributors and produce trade associations to establish labeling and dating of the produce showing "origin of the romaine based on harvest region, along with the date of harvest," the release said. 

"This can improve the ability of the FDA to provide more targeted information to consumers in the event of a future outbreak of illness. The FDA also has commitments from the romaine lettuce industry that such labeling will continue into the future and become the standard for their products," the agency said in the release. 

Likewise, the nation's leafy greens industry will form a task force to set up a system of long-term labeling of greens to help identify them and establish product traceability standards. The task force will also review the latest outbreak to key in on how it occurred in the first place and then set up some standards to help avoid similar contamination in the future. that led to its occurrence and how to prevent ongoing safety problems with romaine lettuce. 

As a result of these latest action, the FDA issued this updated advice to restaurateurs, retailers and the public regarding the original romaine lettuce warning:

"Based on discussions with major producers and distributors, romaine lettuce entering the market will now be labeled with a harvest location and a harvest date. Romaine lettuce entering the market can also be labeled as being hydroponically or greenhouse grown. If it does not have this information, you should not eat or use it.
  
"If consumers, retailers, and food service facilities are unable to identify that romaine lettuce products are not affected —which means determining that the products were grown outside the California regions that appear to be implicated in the current outbreak investigation — we urge that these products not be purchased, or if purchased, be discarded or returned to the place of purchase."

The agency said the following romaine sources appear to be safe from the current e. coli contamination: 

• U.S. areas outside of the Central Coast growing regions of northern and central California. 
• Hydroponically- and greenhouse-grown romaine.