In late September 2019, salad-lovers began falling ill with E. coli infections traced to romaine lettuce, marking the beginning of a widespread outbreak that isn’t over yet. In an update published Dec. 19, 2019, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that 138 people from 25 states had become ill, including 72 who were hospitalized and 13 who developed a type of kidney failure called hemolytic uremic syndrome. No deaths have been reported, and no infections had been reported in New England.
The CDC began an investigation and announced a food safety alert Nov. 20, 2019, for the multistate outbreak. Much of this sickness-inducing lettuce was traced to the Salinas, California, growing region, and more than 75,000 pounds of food products have been recalled by the New Jersey packaged food company, Missa Bay LLC, whose products containing lettuce were thought to be contaminated by E. coli.
For food producers and distributors, E. coli epidemics hurt business. After a food safety alert from the CDC, most buyers shy away from the contaminated food entirely at restaurants and farmstands. But for consumers, food safety falls ultimately into their own hands. Following the recent breakout in romaine lettuce, local distributors and the CDC turned to consumers to look out for their own food safety.
Westward Orchards, a local lettuce distributor, grows its own lettuce, among a plethora of other vegetables and produce, during the growing season. Stephanie Green, manager, said the farm goes through intensive washing to ensure cleanliness in its produce. “[E. coli] becomes a problem after [the produce] has been harvested and you’re doing the washing … a lot of it is the water that you’re using to wash it before it gets eaten. … That’s where a lot of the contamination happens.” Green said consumers should always use fresh water when washing produce.
Chef Paul Correnty, foodservice director at the Bromfield School, similarly cleans the raw produce he and his staff receive. “If you take something and it has dirt on it and you cut it, you’re pushing the dirt into the vegetable or fruit,” Correnty said. “So you want to get the surface clean.”
The CDC gives advice to home cooks about properly cleaning fruits and vegetables. They emphasize thoroughly washing your produce, hands, and cutting board before and after preparing and/or cooking a meal. Additionally, produce should be kept away from raw meat, which can easily carry and transmit E. coli. An E. coli infection can be warded off by washing your hands and drinking clean water. Boiling water is an easy and effective way to kill bacteria in the water.
Green asserted, “knock on wood,” that the farm has never had an issue with food contaminants. “[My brother and I] took a food safety course and got certified this past winter. We try to always be aware of food safety and what you need to do to keep your food safe,” she said.
For Chef Paul at Bromfield, contamination in the cafeteria food is a very serious issue that he always keeps an eye on. The fear of making students sick is “the one thing that keeps me awake at night,” he declared. “That’s the biggest responsibility I have. … I won’t get one kid sick, I’ll get you all sick. If we make a dish… that 200 of you in a day eat, and it’s contaminated, 200 kids get sick.… That would, one thing, be the end of my career, and two, break my heart.” In his time at Bromfield, there has never been food contamination in the cafeteria, he said.
Green highlighted the negative stigma on the rest of the farming industry that a food safety alert like this could have. “Something happens somewhere in this one, potential farm, where a mistake was made, or something was overlooked. But now no one will eat a piece of romaine lettuce. Every farm that has acres and acres and acres of romaine lettuce planted has to throw it away … that one farm has the ability to affect all the farms in the whole country.” Green said that in response to this alert, people decide to stay away from romaine entirely. “That’s the solution.”
Chef Paul noticed something similar, and he said leaving romaine lettuce out of the menu entirely was the way to go. He explained that cafeteria-goers wouldn’t know for sure that the cut of romaine was safe and wouldn’t eat it. “If you don’t see the wrapper, then you don’t know,” he said.
E. coli itself is a bacterium that is harmless and found in the intestines of animals and humans, although some forms of it, Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC) and enterotoxigenic E. coli (ETEC), can cause serious and harmful infections and diseases. Both forms can cause diarrhea, and STEC can especially cause bloody diarrhea. Symptoms of E. coli infection include, most commonly, stomach cramps, diarrhea, and vomiting. These symptoms last on average from three to seven days. In some cases, patients can develop a fatal condition called hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), a type of kidney failure. Symptoms of HUS include feeling very tired and urinating less often. The CDC advises to “contact your healthcare provider if you have diarrhea or vomiting that lasts for more than two days, bloody stools, a fever higher than 102˚F, or signs of dehydration.”
The CDC issued a similar warning in 2018 about an E.coli outbreak linked to California-grown romaine lettuce; that outbreak was declared to be over last January, just nine months before the new outbreak began. So in the end, it comes down to the consumer to take control of their food. Buyers beware!
Sophia Zhou is a Bromfield sophomore.
