Thursday, December 13, 2018

The romaine lettuce E.coli outbreak has been pinned on at least one farm in California with infected reservoir water

The romaine lettuce E.coli outbreak which sickened 59 people across 15 states has been pinned on at least one farm in California, which was using infected water from a reservoir.  The US Food and Drug Association (FDA) said on Thursday they have traced the outbreak, announced on November 20, to at least one location: Adam Bros. Farms in Santa Barbara County, California. They said the outbreak, which was wider than a single farm, may also have come from nearby Monterey and San Benito counties. The FDA said they are quite confident the infected lettuces are off the market. Official advice is to avoid romaine grown in Santa Barbara, Monterey, and San Benito counties.
It's the second E. coli outbreak tied to romaine lettuce so far in 2018. The CDC said the two were not related. The first, earlier this year, sickened more than 200 people and killed five...MORE

2 comments:

Steve West said...

Only Paertislly accurate... here is a excerpt from the FDA announcement...

Today, we’re announcing that we’ve identified a positive sample result for the outbreak strain in the sediment of a local irrigation reservoir used by a single farm owned and operated by Adam Bros. Farms in Santa Barbara County. The FDA will be sending investigators back to this farm for further sampling. It’s important to note that although this is an important piece of information, the finding on this farm doesn’t explain all illnesses and our traceback investigation will continue as we narrow down what commonalities this farm may have with other farms that are part of our investigation. While the analysis of the strain found in the people who got ill and the sediment in one of this farm’s water sources is a genetic match, our traceback work suggests that additional romaine lettuce shipped from other farms could also likely be implicated in the outbreak. Therefore, the water from the reservoir on this single farm doesn’t fully explain what the common source of the contamination. We are continuing to investigate what commonalities there could be from multiple farms in the region that could explain this finding in the water, and potentially the ultimate source of the outbreak.

Frank DuBois said...

thanks