Last month, the CDC advised all US consumers, growers, shippers and foodservice establishments to throw away all romaine lettuce and anything that contained romaine due to an outbreak of E-Coli in several states. Some have been questioning the extreme reaction and wondering if the situation could have been handled better.

Questions not answered Brent Erenwert of Brothers Produce, reckons that information from the CDC has been vague in regards to the source of the outbreak as well as potential effects. He questioned in a recent podcast why the decision was made to throw all romaine lettuce away, despite apparently very little investigation. 'On November 18, the CDC issued a statement warning all consumers to throw any romaine lettuce away they had in their possession due to an E-Coli outbreak,' Erenwert said. Brosur sekolah malaysia.

'This included pre-cut romaine, salads, foodservice, even spring mix. The question is why all romaine lettuce? There was no information or explanation as to what the source region or how widespread the outbreak was or indeed even if romaine was the cause. We didn't see any consistency in regions and we can't understand why it was called an outbreak.'

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'Many of the symptoms of E-Coli infection that the CDC described are very similar to regular food poisoning so how do we know whether a person reported these symptoms after eating romaine or whether it was another food? Food poisoning from restaurants and fast food chains happens every day, but there is never a directive to completely avoid a large restaurant chain because of it. Additionally, the rumored area where the infected romaine originated is Santa Maria and it will remain a rumor so long as the CDC does not announce what exactly their findings were.' Tough for all As a result of the directive, countless tons of romaine lettuce have been cast into the bin all across the country. Who does this affect? According to Erenwert, everyone - from growers, shippers, retailers as well as end consumers.

He said it started with the so-called 'middle men' - the shippers. 'It's a false notion that in these situations, the middle men are unaffected,' he explained. 'In fact, it is these middle men that take the initial hit. They can't return product to the growers because it is not an official recall, and because consumers are not buying it, retailers stop buying it too. In both cases, they are left holding the bag.' He added that farmers face a tough time, partly due to the fact it wasn't an official recall. 'Farmers did initially get paid for the produce, but now they have product in the field that they can't sell so they have to clean it up.

It's doubtful that insurance will cover it in this instance because of the careful wording used by the CDC and USDA surrounding the directive and the fact it wasn't a recall situation.' 'Foodservice buyers need to substitute all their romaine and they usually do so with other leafy greens,' Erenwert continued. 'These leafy greens like iceberg lettuce, kale, spinach, etc, are now at extremely elevated prices and it's not like restaurants and other foodservice producers can increase menu prices overnight.' Many tons of romaine lettuce have been thrown away in the past month Erenwert also expressed his sadness at the amount of food that has been thrown away because he believes the majority of romaine that was discarded was clear of any bacteria. 'The amount of product that was thrown away was phenomenal,' he observed. 'It was heartbreaking to see all that edible product - which I knew to be completely safe - go to waste. Several times a year, I join in food drives for homeless people and I think the CDC and USDA need to provide us with an answer and a better solution to what happened.'