FDA Update on Romaine Lettuce Outbreak as Yuma, AZ, Growing Season Begins
As the romaine lettuce growing season is underway again in the Yuma, AZ, growing region, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued details from an environmental assessment after the largest outbreak of Escherichia coli O157:H7 the U.S. has seen in 10 years.
The environmental assessment identified the presence of E. coli O157:H7 in three different samples of irrigation canal water that was collected as part of the investigation in the Yuma region. As a result of this finding, FDA “considers that the most likely way the romaine lettuce became contaminated was from the use of water from the irrigation canal, since the outbreak strain was not found in any of the other samples collected in the region.”