FDA Announces New Sampling Plan for Romaine Grown in Yuma, AZ Growing Region
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is launching an assignment to collect romaine lettuce samples from commercial coolers in the Yuma County, Arizona growing region during the current harvest season. The samples will be tested for Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli and Salmonella spp. as part of ongoing surveillance efforts following the spring 2018 multistate E. coli O157:H7 outbreak of foodborne illness linked to romaine lettuce from the Yuma agricultural region. Salmonella spp. also commonly causes foodborne illness outbreaks in the United States, which have at times been linked to romaine lettuce consumption.
The FDA plans to begin collecting samples of romaine lettuce from commercial coolers in February and intends to continue sampling through the end of the romaine harvest season in Yuma. The FDA assignment will focus on commercial cooler and cold storage facilities where field heat is removed from harvested romaine and where product is cold stored before processing and shipment. The focus on these sites enables the FDA to efficiently collect samples from multiple farms at centralized locations, following a similar model used during an assignment conducted in FY19.