Hot Topics: Leafy Greens

Oh no... not Leafy Greens!!!

A few of my students are completing a science experiment titled “Which types of produce have a higher risk of containing a food borne illness?” They will be selecting different produce from, and will be taking cultures of their surfaces and investigating if there is any bacteria on their surfaces, and if so which type. They have done research on past recalls, and are planning on testing spinach, tomatoes, jalepenos, and apples. Well this week, I walked into class and exclaimed “You should test romaine lettuce now!!!”

This weekend the bagged lettuce section was sadly empty. Spinach and Iceberg was left alone to keep each other company as all romaine lettuce was recalled due a recent outbreak of Ecoli. Since April 10th, bagged romaine lettuce has been linked to 19 human cases of Ecoli, three of which have life threatening kidney failure. Currently, it seems that the contaminated lettuce originated at a farm in Yuma, Arizona. The theory remains consistent with past produce recalls, that the lettuce was exposed and perhaps grew in bacteria infected water.

The romaine Lettuce has been recalled in 24 states (mostly on the east side of the United States... interesting because Arizona is not what I would call eastern US, so this Romaine lettuce has quite a car ride) and the District of Columbia. But this time it is not the traditional Ecoli H157... it’s Ecoli: 0145 a rare form of the Ecoli strand. In fact, most hospital labs cannot identify this form of Ecoli, and can overlooked.

So, another healthy food is removed from our food system. The personal impact of food recalls have a strangely similar effect on me as large snowstorms... I can remember when it happened and how it briefly altered my life in the days that followed. I can still remember the spinach recall, and the space that used to be filled with spinach, was now just a pile of ice chips. Each day I would turn the corner hoping that the spinach would reappear. The spinach recall felt seemingly endless. It felt drawn out because once the media buzz died down, and spinach did not return. I began to ask my cafeteria staff when they might get it back, and they never had an answer. I ate way too much iceberg lettuce that semester. Anyways, your caesar salad maybe on backorder... but hopefully not for too long.